The Gujarat High Court has set aside the 2003 conviction and five-year rigorous imprisonment awarded to former Director General of Police S.S. Khandwawala in a 1976 custodial torture case, holding that the sessions court’s judgment was “erroneous and failed in merits.” The Court also dismissed the State’s plea seeking enhancement of the sentence.
Justice Gita Gopi quashed the September 2003 judgment of the Junagadh sessions court, which had convicted Khandwawala under Section 365 of the Indian Penal Code in connection with the alleged custodial torture of one Merag Haja.
The prosecution case related to an incident of October 1976, when Merag Haja’s house was searched in connection with an Arms Act case and he was taken to the Porbandar police station. It was alleged that on the following day he was beaten by the accused and others in custody, resulting in a fracture to his left leg and loss of consciousness.
A private complaint alleging custodial torture was filed on November 2, 1976. The complainant was hospitalised and released on bail on October 14, 1976. The court took cognisance of the complaint in December 1981, and the case was registered on September 16, 1982.
In 2003, the sessions court convicted Khandwawala, then a deputy superintendent of police, and sentenced him to five years’ rigorous imprisonment. The sentence was suspended after he filed an appeal before the High Court.
Setting aside the conviction, the High Court held that the prosecution had failed to establish the allegation of custodial torture. The Court observed that the evidence did not prove that the injuries sustained by the complainant were the result of police custody beating, nor was the date of custody established.
On this basis, the Court concluded that the sessions court’s order was “erroneous and failed in merits.”
The High Court noted that the case against one co-accused, P.A. Raol, had abated due to his death during trial. The appeals of two other accused, Bhupatsinh Vaghela and Rampalsingh Pawar—who had been sentenced to one year’s rigorous imprisonment—also abated following their deaths during the pendency of the appeal.
The State government had sought enhancement of the sentence imposed by the sessions court. The High Court dismissed this plea.
Shabbir Hussein Shekhadam Khandwawala later served as Gujarat’s Director General of Police from February 2009 to December 2010.
