‘SLP pending before SC against the IPS officer’
Udaipur : A senior advocate in Udaipur has written to the chief minister Ashok Gehlot raising objections on the prospect of senior IPS officer MohanLal Lathar to be appointed as the new Director General of Police. Hari Singh Bhati, a senior lawyer said in his letter that a special leave to appeal criminal petition is pending against Lathar at the Supereme Court in connection to a case where he is accused of administering third degree torture to an innocent man in a murder case. Bhati told that in 2000 a hotelier Girdhar Bhandari was shot dead. Lathar was posted as Superintendent of Police in Udaipur then.
At the SP’s order Bhati’s son Nakul Singh Bhati was lifted from his home and kept at different police stations of the city. The advocate alleged that his son was tortured to that extreme extent that he had to confess a crime that he had not committed. The incident had drawn flak from the civil society and the Rajput community that had staged protest and flagged a movement for justice.
Bhati also said that an FIR was registered at the Bhupalpura police station against the SP and other cops under sections 342, 330 and 323 of the IPC but the police department did not take any action on the complaint and let the officers scot free. The case is now being heard by the Supreme Court after Bhati filed a SLP (6497-6502) in 2016. The advocate said that the state government’s image would be marred among the public if such an officer is appointed to the highest post of police department.