Court issues show-cause notice to Mahabaleshwar police over ill-treatment to two Satara ZP members

Kolhapur: A magisterial court at Mahabaleshwar in Satara district on Wednesday directed a show-cause notice to be issued to the Mahabaleshwar police over the alleged ill-treatment of two Satara Zilla Parishad (ZP) members, who were arrested in an abduction case and were prohibited from voting in the recently held ZP president and vice-president posts.The arrests kicked off a major political controversy with the Shiv Sena-NCP alliance losing the two ZP posts to BJP despite having a majority as the police action reduced their numbers.Judicial magistrate first class (JMFC) Uday S Ivare took note of a medical report which revealed presence of injury marks and prima facie supported the allegations of ill-treatment. It rejected the police's plea for custodial remand of the two members and granted them bail while observing that custodial interrogation cannot be permitted at the cost of the fundamental rights of the accused. Besides, the abduction victim did not support the police's case, the magistrate noted.On March 20, NCP's two Satara ZP members, Anil Desai and Sandip Mandave, were first detained a few feet away from the entrance of the ZP hall where voting to elect the president and vice-president was to take place.Desai told reporters in Satara, "We were beaten badly by the police in plainclothes. They had taken our cellphones and put us in police van and for hours they were taking us from one place to another and only in the evening we were brought to the Mahabaleshwar police station. We had no food for whole day. We showed the injury marks we received after we were beaten. We are seeking legal opinion to file case against the police involved in what we both had to suffer."During the hearing of the matter, Dinkar alias Bapusaheb Shinde, another NCP member, told the magistrate that his son was pressured by the police into lodging an abduction complaint despite his statement to the police that he was not abducted and the police went on to lodge the FIR against Desai and Mandve.The case, registered by the Mahabaleshwar police, has been handed over to local crime branch. The police in their report to State Intelligence Department has maintained that both the ZP members had spoken their intention while on their way to hall to disrupt the voting process as they had realised that they are bound to lose the election.