Rescue Foundation vs. Senior Police Officer Shahada Police Station

ITEM NO.10 COURT NO.2 SECTION II-A

S U P R E M E C O U R T O F I N D I A RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS

Petition(s) for Special Leave to Appeal (Crl.) No(s). 6753/2017

(Arising out of impugned final judgment and order dated 24-08-2017 in CRLWP No. 325/2017 passed by the High Court Of Judicature At Bombay at Aurangabad)

RESCUE FOUNDATION Petitioner(s)

VERSUS

SENIOR POLICE OFFICER SHAHADA POLICE STATION & ORS.Respondent(s)

(FOR EXEMPTION FROM FILING C/C OF THE IMPUGNED JUDGMENT ON IA 87296/2017 and IA No.90557/2017-PERMISSION TO FILE ADDITIONAL DOCUMENTS)

Date : 03-04-2018 This matter were called on for hearing today.

• CORAM : HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE J. CHELAMESWAR HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SANJAY KISHAN KAUL
• For Petitioner(s) Mr. Abhishek Bharti, Adv. Mr. Wesley Basil Menezes, Adv. Mr. Harish P. Bhandari, Adv. Mr. Balaji Srinivasan, AOR Mr. Arunava Mukherjee, Adv. Ms. Vaishnavi Subrahmanyam, Adv. Ms. Pratiksha Mishra, Adv.
• For Respondent(s) Mr. Tushar Mehta, ASG Mr. Nishant Ramakantrao Katneshwarkar, AOR

UPON hearing the counsel the Court made the following O R D E R

Pursuant to the order dated 21st March, 2018, Mr. Satish C. Mathur, Director General of Police, Maharashtra is present in the Court. Mr. Tushar Mehta, learned Additional Solicitor General appears for the State of Maharashtra and also on behalf of Director General of Police. An affidavit dated 3rd Digitally signed by DEEPAK MANSUKHANI Date: 2018.04.04 17:04:49 IST Reason: Signature Not Verified

April, 2018 by Mr. Satish C. Mathur is filed indicating that subsequent to the above-mentioned order of this Court, Director General of Police examined the matter in some detail and took some steps for an effective investigation of the crime of human trafficking and proposes to take some more steps, the details of which are indicated in the abovementioned affidavit.

In para 3(c) of the affidavit, it is stated that a Special Investigating Team has been formed for the thorough investigation of the incident which is headed by an Additional Superintendent of Police, Nandurbar. However, it is stated before us, having regard to the intensity of the matter, the team would now be headed by an Officer of the rank of the Inspector General of Police. The Director General of Police stated before us that he proposes to nominate the Inspector General (Prevention of Atrocities Against Women and Children) for this purpose.

We are informed that Crime No. 05/2017 on the file of the Shahada Police Station, Nandurbar of Maharashtra is registered in connection with human trafficking which is the subject matter of the instant proceeding. It appears from the material on record that the crime has inter-state implications. Therefore, in the course of the investigation of the crime, if people are either sought to be arrested or

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arrested on the suspicion that they are responsible for the human trafficking, they are likely to approach various Courts for securing anticipatory bail/regular bail during the pendency of the investigation and trial of the cases against them.

Having regard to the fact that the case has inter-state dimensions, applications are likely to be placed in different Courts in different parts of the country. It would be difficult to effectively handle the problem. Therefore, we deem it appropriate that any application either for anticipatory bail or regular bail should be moved only before the High Court of Bombay and no other court should entertain any proceeding in connection with the above-mentioned crime. We request the Hon'ble Acting Chief Justice of Bombay High Court to designate a Bench for considering such applications exclusively.

Learned Additional Solicitor General also assured the Court that the State would identify an Officer exclusively for dealing with all the cases connected with above-mentioned crime and all the applications arising out of it.

A prayer is made on behalf of the petitioner Rescue Foundation that the organisation may also be permitted to assist the State in pursuing either the main crime case or any application arising from the said criminal case through a

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lawyer to be identified by the petitioner Rescue Foundation. Learned Additional Solicitor General fairly accepted the offer made by the learned counsel for the petitioner.

The presence of all the Officers is dispensed with.

We place on record our appreciation of the concern shown by Director General of Police.

List the matter again on 3rd May, 2018.

(DEEPAK MANSUKHANI) (RAJINDER KAUR) AR CUM PS COURT MASTER