Framed and freed: Siblings acquitted after eight-year legal battle in Mumbai

Anmol Vijaykant Mishra 27 and his sister Priyanka 31 who were framed by the Colaba police in 2016 have now been acquitted in the case after 8 years of legal battle On June 22 2016 the siblings approached Colaba police station to register an FIR after their bike was stolen However when the cops refused to register the FIR an argument ensued between the cops and the siblings and the cops accused them of riding a bike without a helmet and manhandling the cops Anmol is a professional photographer and his sister Priyanka is a manager at a private firm both are residents of Vashi The siblings who had lost their parents were forced to leave the rental flat in the Colaba area after the arrestHow cops framed themPriyanka told midday ldquoWe purchased a new bike in 2015 and it was stolen in 2016 I sent my brother to the Colaba police station to file the FIR My brother informed me that I had to come to register the complaint as I was the owner I went to the police station However the cops laughed at us saying that we as collegegoing siblings had come to register an FIR The cops were only willing to register a missing complaint An argument ensued between the cops and us and the duty officer threatened to register an FIR against usrdquoAnmol MishraldquoCops filed a false FIR claiming that Anmol was riding without a helmet did not show his license and was stopped by the cops They also alleged that I arrived at the scene snatched the RC book and PUC from the cops and manhandled them The cops registered the FIR under IPC sections 353 34 and arrested both of us Later we secured bail after being brought to courtrdquo Priyanka added The cops filed the chargesheet on 26 December 2016ArgumentsThe case for acquittal was presented before S N Patil Additional Sessions Judge at City Civil amp Sessions Court Judge Patil noted that witness Narendra Kumar Mistry had a history of serving as a panch witness at Colaba police station While PSI Mahadev Redekar acknowledged collecting the PUC and RC book from the accused PSI Yashwant Borse admitted in crossexamination that he hadnrsquot seized the RC book Although CCTV cameras were installed at the incident spot Borse failed to collect the footage Additionally no independent witnesses were examined to strengthen the prosecutionrsquos case PSI Mahadev Redekar admitted to a target for fines and acknowledged the presence of common people but didnrsquot seize the bike The reliability of the prosecution witnessesrsquo evidence was questioned After considering the arguments the judge ordered that the siblings be acquitted Their bail bonds were to be releasedAdvocate speaksAdvocate Sunil PandeyThe siblings sought the help of advocate Sunil Pandey who fought their case without charging them anything Advocate Sunil Pandey said ldquoThey were falsely implicated in the case and are victims If the cops caught Anmol without a helmet why didnrsquot they seize the bike related to this incident Where is the bike now The cops claimed to have found the RC book and PUC but did not provide any records The witness Narendra Kumar is a habitual witness in many cases How was he present at the same spot during the incidentrdquo ldquoThe cops claimed that the incident was captured on CCTV cameras in the crowded area of Colaba market but they did not submit any CCTV footage or provide any witness from the spot The entire incident was fabricated by the cops to frame them There was no assault or criminal force in this incidentrdquo Pandey added