A city magistrate court has ordered the Vakola police station to continue investigating the stalking case filed by Marathi film writer and psychologist Dr Swapna Patker against Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut in 2013.
According to an order made available on Wednesday, November 24, the court also dismissed the closure report the Mumbai police had submitted in the case stating that they could not find the unknown culprits. The chief metropolitan magistrate S B Bhajipale had rejected the ‘A-summary’ report of the police on November 18 and detailed order in the matter was made available now, reports Mid-Day.
An ‘A-summary’ report is a document used by the police to close an investigation, in which they believe that despite the existence of an offence, there is insufficient evidence against the accused.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate SB Bhajiale said in his order that the complainant had herself submitted names of suspected people, but the investigating officer did not bother to probe them. He added that the investigating officer had miserably failed to notice that the complainant was attacked on May 16, 2013, before the alleged incident on June 29, 2013.
The court stated that it is a well-established notion that an FIR is not a repository of information. It observed that the complainant’s (Dr Swapna Patker) statement was collected separately by a vigilant Inquiry Officer and its veracity was verified. However, the current Inquiry Officer has done nothing of the sort, said the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate. He added that a further inquiry can be conducted based on the woman’s complaint in this case.
It may be noted that the Marathi film writer and psychologist Dr Swapna Patker had said in her protest petition against the Mumbai police’s closure report that the latter had not probed her husband, with whom she had strained relations, or the ‘political person’ Sanjay Raut.
Swapna Patker accuses Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut of 8 years of harassment, character assassination and abuse
She said that she had told the police that Raut was stalking her and following her and had removed the CDR from her phone, allowing them to track her whereabouts. She had further added that she had informed the officers in the Vakola police station that the Shiv Sena MP was providing perks to her husband to harass her, but that neither her husband nor the politician were ever investigated.
Notably, Patkar has been alleging that Sanjay Raut, co-editor of Shiv Sena mouthpiece ‘Saamana’, has been using his political clout and hold on the system for the last 8 years to not only assault her but to also harrass family and relatives.
In June this year, Patker was taken to Bandra Police station by police without any written summons, her advocate Abha Singh has said. Singh also alleged that she was not provided with an FIR copy before cops took her to the police station.
She had in April 2021, written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in which she alleged that she is being harassed, tortured and abused by Shiv Sena MP and Editor of Saamana, Sanjay Raut, since the past eight years.
In her letter to the PM, Swapna alleged that her complaints were ignored by the police, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, ex-Home Minister Anil Deshmukh and other officials of Maharashtra as the perpetrator has a stronghold in the political party.
Dr Swapna informed OpIndia that she used to write columns for Shiv Sena’s mouthpiece publication Saamna from 2009-2014 and also took care of some of Sanjay Raut’s Rajya Sabha work. However, when she decided to get back to her profession from her passion, Dr Swapna alleged that Sanjay Raut was not happy with her decision and started to heckle, harass and torture her.
