A day ahead of the expiry of an interim protection from arrest granted to him by a city sessions court in the molestation and rape case filed against him by a model, pressure mounted on the Mumbai Police to subject the accused senior IPS officer Sunil Paraskar to a lie-detector test.
Contesting a claim made by Paraskar’s lawyer that his client was in no position to undergo a lie detector test since the latter had undergone a by-pass surgery, Maharashtra State Women Rights Commission (MSWRC) chairperson Susieben Shah wrote to Mumbai Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria, seeking authentication of the lawyer’s claim from a leading cardiologist attached to a Government hospital.
In her letter to Maria, Shah alluded to a media report quoting a claim by Paraskar’s lawyer and stated in her letter, “I checked with a leading cardiologist in Mumbai and he was of the opinion that Paraskar does not face any health hazard for taking a lie-detector test. I therefore request you to take an opinion from a leading cardiologist attached to a Government hospital to ascertain the authenticity of lawyer’s claim”.
Shah, in her letter to Maria, also stressed on the need for suspension of Paraskar, pending an investigation against him. “We have no doubt that under your leadership a fair and free investigation will be carried out… We feel that to ensure a free and a fair investigation, either Paraskar should step aside voluntarily while the investigation is going on and if not, he should be suspended pending completion of the investigation,” the MSWRC chairperson stated.
Fifty-seven-year-old Paraskar, who is currently the Deputy Inspector General (Protection of Civil Rights Units) posted at Maharashtra Police Headquarters here, has been booked under sections 376(2) (rape by a police officer), 376(C) (intercourse by superintendent of jail, etc) and 354(D) (stalking) following a complaint by the Mumbai-based model.
Paraskar, who had moved a city sessions court for anticipatory bail last week, was initially granted an interim protection from arrest till July 31 which was extended till August 5.
Informed police sources said that when the matter comes up before a city sessions court on Tuesday, the investigators will seek Paraskar’s custody on the ground that only a custodial interrogation would bring out truth from the accused police officer.
In a complaint lodged last month, the 26-year-old model had accused Paraskar of misusing his office and sexually abusing her in a bungalow at Madh in north Mumbai and a flat in Navi Mumbai.
In her police complaint, the model had stated that she had met Paraskar, when he was the ACP (Mumbai north) in April 2013 and that the latter had helped her in a property dispute.
She had once again approached Paraskar after she began to receive calls from unknown people on the basis of a profile and photograph that an unidentified person had uploaded on an escort service website.
During the course of the meetings, the model stated that she had become familiar with Paraskar.The investigations have revealed that the model and Paraskar had exchanged nearly 35 e-mails and 200-odd text messages between them.
Given that these mails and text messages between the complainant and accused police officer have become a part of evidence in the case, the investigators are examining them to ascertain as to the nature of relations between them.
Meanwhile, the Shiv Sena – which courted a fierce controversy during the weekend over an editorial published in “Saamana” supporting the rape-accused Paraskar and claiming that it had become a “fashion” to charge men with molestation and rape ---defended the editorial published in its official mouth-piece, saying the party was being defamed without understanding its stance on the issue.
“We agree that rape is heinous but it is also equally reprehensible to make (baseless) allegations of rape…..What we have said that the rape victim should lodge the complaint immediately. If complaint is lodged after six months or a year, the medical evidence in such cases is invalid and the case assumes a different colour,” an editorial in ‘Saamana’ stated.
Maintaining that the controversial editorial written in Marathi had been distorted in translation, the Sena mouth-piece stated: “Now, it is just a one-sided attack by those who don’t want to understand what someone said or wrote”.
The Sena mouth-piece came down heavily on a section of the media that had sought to distort the contents of its editorial by saying: “Some TV news channels and print journalists are now ‘raping’ journalism and neither the Press Council nor the courts can curb this,,,,,There is no reason for controversy on our view that there should be no media trial in rape case while the matter is in court and police investigation is in progress”..
“Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP President Amit Shah and NCP president Sharad Pawar have faced such media trials,” the “Saamana” editorial stated, as it went onto cite a similar media trial faced by Bollywood filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar, who was acquitted of rape charge after a model filed a case against him.