Ahmedabad: Gujarat High Court on Friday issued notices to Ahmedabad Range IG, SP (rural) and nine police officers from Dhandhuka police station, including its in-charge inspector B T Gohil, on a petition seeking contempt of court action over alleged custodial torture and public humiliation..The petition was filed by four Dhandhuka farmers — Hussain Malvat, Mohammedhusain Modan, Dadik Modan and Imran Maru — who claimed they went to the police station to file a complaint of trespassing and crop damage. On the way, they had a face-off with owners of cattle which had allegedly damaged their crops. Police insisted on registering complaints from both sides.Petitioners alleged that they were illegally detained, beaten and paraded in public with their hands tied with ropes on inspector Gohil’s instructions. They named nine police personnel, including four women constables, who allegedly beat and humiliated them during the parade on Oct 9.Gohil is already facing another contempt of court case, in which HC framed charges against him over the 2016 custodial torture and public parading of an accused in Rajkot.Petitioners’ counsel I H Syed submitted that HC issued directions in 2019 and the DGP issued a circular in 2026 prohibiting public parading and humiliation of accused persons. These measures followed Supreme Court directions in the D K Basu judgment on handling persons in police custody.Syed said the applicants sought punishment for the police personnel, production of CCTV footage and medico-legal case papers from the hospital, besides appropriate compensation for the public humiliation and ill-treatment allegedly meted out to them.The petition named nine police personnel, including Gohil and four women constables. One policeman was not identified by name, prompting HC to inquire how it could issue notice to an unknown person.A division bench of Justice N S Sanjay Gowda and Justice J L Odedra asked how many police personnel named in the petition could be identified from photographs and video footage. The lawyer replied that all were identifiable.HC ordered the preservation of CCTV footage from the police station, custody room and areas where the applicants were allegedly paraded. It also directed the Dhandhuka hospital authority to provide medical case papers.Seeking protection for the applicants amid mounting pressure and threats, Syed received a response from Justice Sanjay Gowda, who told the govt lawyer to “ask them not to do anything stupid”.Further hearing was scheduled after two weeks.
