The court convicts a lawyer of defaming an IPS officer and sentences him to one month in prison

A district court on Friday convicted a lawyer in a defamation case filed by an IPS officer for filing an application on behalf of a policeman who was arrested for running a drug syndicate with drug dealer Baba Patankar.

Metropolitan Magistrate (Esplanade Court) Hemant U Joshi found him guilty and sentenced him to one month’s imprisonment along with rupees. Fine of Rs 5000 to lawyer Naveen Ramakant Chomal.

On March 10, 2014, the Satara police arrested a constable Dharmraj Kalokhe in a drugs case and later the Marine police also sought his arrest in another drugs case, following which he was produced before a city magistrate court.

The applicant IPS officer was then serving as Additional Commissioner of Police (Addl.CP) in the Crime Branch from 2014 to 2016 and supervised the functioning of various units of the Crime Branch, including the Crime Detection Branch, Narcotics Cell and the Law Enforcement Branch.

Chomal, in the said application filed on behalf of Kalokhe before the Magistrate’s Court, had alleged that the accused policeman was questioned by the Satara police in connection with the alleged role of senior IPS officer KMM Prasanna, who was then an additional officer of the Mumbai Police and is currently serving as Inspector General (IG) ) (establishments) of the Maharashtra Police.

IPS officer Prasanna alleged that based on an application filed through Chomal, press reports were published citing the alleged interrogation of Prasanna which damaged his reputation and was defamatory. Prasanna filed a complaint against Chomal for an offence under Section 500 (criminal defamation) of the IPC.

In the judgment handed down on Friday, the judge said that “the application (Chomala) containing the name of the present applicant (Prasanna) was completely unnecessary,” especially when “there is not a single word in the records of the said police station about the role of the present applicant in this crime.”

“It appears from the record that after investigation into these allegations by the DGP, the officer of the concerned police station submitted a report stating that they did not interrogate the accused Kalokhe regarding the involvement of the present complainant in this crime at any point of time. “It is therefore clear that the allegations against the current applicant were unfounded and were mentioned in the application with an ulterior motive, most likely to influence the investigation,” the judge said.

Advocate Amol Phoujdar, who represented Prasanna, said any leniency shown to the accused would demoralise other government officials and he would be given the maximum sentence for sending a “strong message”. After Chomal appealed for leniency, the judge said a month’s simple detention would “satisfy the ends of justice”.