ITC Grand Maratha employee Dean D’Souza has been ‘terrorised’ by assistant police inspector Manisha Rankhande for the last two-and-a-half months.
Twenty-two-year-old ITC Grand Maratha employee Dean D’Souza has been ‘terrorised’ by assistant police inspector Manisha Rankhande of the Sahar police station for two-and-a-half months after he met with a motorcycle accident on his way home from work on November 24, 2006. Around 6.45 am that day, a perfectly-sober D’Souza’s vehicle ran into Dulari, wife of a dairy store owner Shyamlal Yadav.
Both Dulari, who sustained a leg fracture, and D’Souza were treated for injuries at a private nursing home in the locality. The doctors advised D’Souza and his mother, Francina, to inform the local police about the accident, which he promptly did.
Says Francina: “That is when our ordeal started. While the police are required to lodge a case against the motorcycle rider and release him on bail, none of this procedure was completed by Rankhande who kept harassing me and my son by repeatedly calling us to the police station.”
On two occasions constables were sent to the ITC Grand Marathi, where D’Souza worked, to summon him to the police station in an apparent bid to embarass him at his workplace. “When my son was giving his statement, a constable asked him whether he possessed a passport. When Dean replied in the negative, he was told he would never be able to procure one either,” the 53-year-old widow told DNA.
During their repeated visits to the police station, D’Souza was asked to cough up a bribe, Francina alleged. “When I approached the senior PI, CK Chavan, he too directed me to follow the Rankhande’s instructions.
On January 17, 2007, the harried mother visited the anti corruption bureau (ACB) for help. The ACB officials, as it turned out, proved to be her saviours on February 5 when Rankhande finally decided to complete the formalities of the case by effecting the arrest of D’Souza but flaty refused to accept the surety of his mother to bail him out in the case.
Fortunately for D’Souza, Anti-Corruption Bureau sleuths who were conducting the verification exercise to determine Rankhande’s demands for a bribe stepped in and told the official that in accident cases the police were required to immediately arrest and enlarge on bail D’Souza, which was delayed by over two-and-a-half months. They also pointed out to the Rankhande that the confiscation of D’Souza’s motorcycle which was returned to him only on February 5 had no sanction of law.
Rankhande when contacted said: “I have been conducting enquiries into the case as per the instructions of my superiors. The case was booked on November 24 itself. Thereafter, I was posted to Nagpur for the winter session of the state legislature.” When asked how the vehicle was detained for the period and why D’Souza’s technical arrest and bail was executed only on February 5, she was unable to reply.
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