Ratnamukh Pardeshi, a resident of Sai Nagar Welfare Society, Dahisar (E), had filed a police complaint alledging that Police Inspector S Sonawane with the Dahisar police, one Kailash Chougule and 20 to 25 other armed persons had attacked local residents and molested women on May 30. Ten men from the locality were also confined in a secluded place for three days, according to the complaint.

When the police failed to take cognizance of the complaint, Advocate Kishore Joshi lodged a police complaint at the 26th court, Borivli. On June 19, 1999, Metropolitan Magistrate M W Nayak observed that taking into consideration the gravity of the offences, it was a fit case to be investigated by asuperior officer.

He therefore forwarded the complaint to Shelar for investigation under Section 156(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure by a subordinate officer. He also ordered that a chargesheet be submitted if the offences were found to have been committed by the accused.

On August 3, however, an application for contempt of court against the DCP was made to the magistrate. It said that since the matter was urgent, the magistrate's order directing the DCP to investigate the matter was delivered to the DCP's office only on June 23. Shelar, for reasons best known to him, did not hand over the investigations to any of his subordinates till today, reads the application.

The application, by Pardeshi, further states that she and her advocate made inquiries with the DCP's office on at least 15 occassions but each time they were told that Shelar was busy attending to other matters. According to the complaint, the officer had helped the accused and flouted the orders of the court intentionally and renderedhimself to be liable for action under the Contempt of Court Act. ``By delaying the order, the DCP has helped the accused in the destruction of evidence,'' the complaint states.