Nainital, Dec 18 (PTI) The SHO of Ramnagar police station has been suspended after he arrested a resort owner who allegedly denied him a room citing full occupancy, officials said on Monday.
Deputy Inspector General, Kumaon range, Yogender Singh Rawat issued the suspension order to Ramnagar SHO Arun Saini on Saturday following the Uttarakhand High Court’s intervention, they added.
Saini was suspended for arresting Rajeev Shah, owner of the resort in the Corbett Tiger Reserve here, for serving liquor to guests, which the high court said was a minor bailable offence necessitating the issuance of a prior notice, the officials said.
Shah had allegedly turned down Saini’s request for a room allocation as the entire property was booked for a wedding.
Immediately after the wedding was over, Saini allegedly raided the resort with a police team at night and arrested Shah for serving liquor to the guests. Ten empty bottles of liquor and one half-filled bottle were recovered from the resort, the officials said.
Shah spent the night at the police lock-up. However, after being let off on bail, he filed a case in the Uttarakhand High Court challenging his arrest. A single bench of Justice Rakesh Thapliyal deemed the arrest of the resort owner Rajeev Shah as a “retributive” action by the SHO when his request for allocation of a room was turned down as the entire resort was booked for a wedding. Shah’s lawyer Dushyant Mailani said according to a Supreme Court order, a prior notice or a challan is issued for minor bailable offences.
In case of a direct arrest, the police have to explain under what circumstances a notice or challan was not issued, Mailani said, adding that nothing of the sort was done by the police in this case which suggests that the action was “retributive”.
The high court asked how the police officer lost sight of the ruling by the apex court and carried out the arrest, prompting the DIG to suspend the SHO, the officials said. PTI COR ALM RPA
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