The Gujarat Police have once again paraded an accused to ‘send the message’ that nobody was above the law.
Ironically, the incident took place on Wednesday happened, a day after the Gujarat High Court had sought clarification from the state government on which law accused were flogged by the police.
Aseem Nizam Sheikh, 37, was arrested from Mumbai following a complaint of rape and blackmail by a 22-year-old woman at Khergam village of Navsari district in south Gujarat.
On Wednesday, he was being paraded through the village market for about two kilometres as the villagers cheered and showered flower petals on the policemen for their act. A local court had sent him to police remand.
A woman had complained that Aseem Sheikh raped her and was forcing her to marry him. Upon her refusal, he had sent some objectionable videos to the family of the man with whom her marriage was being fixed.
Seeking to justify the parading of the accused, the police have said that Aseem has 18 criminal cases pending against him, including bootlegging and other offences.
Incidentally, the Gujarat High Court has twice reprimanded the police in the last two days about flogging of accused and parading them in public.
In a 2016 case of beating and parading of an accused in Rajkot, a division bench of the High Court on Wednesday formally charged five policemen with contempt of court.
Another division bench of the high court had on Monday asked the government to clarify about flogging of over a dozen detainees rounded up in Kheda following an incident of stone pelting at a Garba venue in October last year.