Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Monday granted anticipatory bail to three policemen belonging to the Government Railway Police (GRP). All three were booked for allegedly threatening, assaulting, and extorting money from a Rajasthan-based jeweller at Mumbai Central railway station last month.While granting pre-arrest bail to Rahul Bhosale, Lalit Jagtap, and Anil Rathod, the court considered their argument that the complaint had “over-exaggerated” the allegations. Granting them relief, Justice Nitin Borkar of the HC directed that in the event the applicants are arrested, they should be released on furnishing a personal bond of Rs 25,000 each. They should not contact witnesses and must attend the investigating office from Sep 17 to 19 at 2pm.The FIR against the trio was registered on August 3, with Mumbai Central police station for the alleged offence under section 119(1) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) (voluntarily causing grievous hurt to extort or to constrain someone to commit an offence). The offence attracts a punishment of up to 10 years’ imprisonment.On August 26, a sessions court denied them relief in their pre-arrest bail plea following their suspension. The trio then approached the HC in appeal, and their counsel, Aniket Nikam, argued that there was a delay of six days in lodging the First Information Report (FIR) against them. The FIR is registered “merely on the basis of surmises and conjectures,” said the appeal before the High Court. The prosecution opposed their plea.Nikam also argued that the applicants were in service for a long time and the allegations did not inspire confidence, particularly due to the delay. He submitted that the concerned police officers were in uniform. The appeal said, “all the allegations of the complainant in respect of money being taken by the applicants are false and same can be corroborated by the CCTV footage.”Nikam further argued that if their arrests are permitted on the basis of delayed complaints, it would affect the morale of the police force. The reasoned HC order copy will be available in due course.
