While the Investigating Officer (IO) in the mafia Dhalsamant brothers’ case on Sunday submitted the grounds in the SDJM Court here as to why the brothers were handcuffed on Saturday, the sibblings’ advocate said a contempt of court case would be filed against the IO if the grounds do not justify the action.
The brothers handcuffed separately were made to walk with heavy police deployment in a residential locality here on Saturday while they were taken to their office at Abhinav Bidanasi here for the purpose of investigation. Surprisingly, the brothers were not handcuffed on Sunday although the official residence of the SDJM, where the brothers were produced after the end of police remand, is just 100 meter from the office of the brothers in the same locality.
“Parading the brothers in handcuffs inside a residential colony is a clear violation of standing orders of the Supreme Court and also the last week’s order of the HC,” said the brothers’ advocate Soura Chandra Mohapatra quoting the Apex court’s observation that “Reckless handcuffing and chaining in public degrades, puts to shame finer sensibilities and is a slur on our culture.”
However, justifying his action, IO Ajay Kumar Das speaking to this correspondent over telephone said the brothers had shown violent gestures during police remand earlier after they came to know that police have collected sufficient evidence establishing their involvements in the murder of their two former associates.
“Anticipating further violent behaviour while taking them to their office, where huge public and media men had gathered, I thought it was a fit case to handcuff them,” Das said.
He said since the remand period for the two murder cases is over, police did not seek any further remand of the accused and the brothers, along with an accomplish, were remanded to judicial custody and sent back to the Choudwar jail.
