Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court has issued notices to CID Crime cybercell officials, the director general of police, folk singer Kirtidan Gadhvi, and three others in response to a petition filed by Jayesh Parmar. Parmar alleges illegal detention and custodial torture following a commercial dispute complaint lodged by the singer.
Justice M R Mengdey sought replies by June 17 and directed the police to preserve CCTV footage from the CID Crime cybercell police station in Gandhinagar. The court order explicitly states: "The CCTV footage of the concerned police station from Feb 20 to 21 shall be preserved by the concerned police authorities."
Parmar, a resident of Khodiyarnagar who runs an event management company, submitted that Gadhvi filed a complaint accusing him of a ticket scam for a Navratri show last year, causing a loss of Rs 8-10 crore. Although the business contract included an arbitration clause, Gadhvi and others resorted to criminal action. The cybercell cops acted on the complaint despite lacking jurisdiction to handle a commercial dispute without an allegation of cyber fraud.
Parmar further alleged that the cops illegally picked him up, detained him, and tortured him in custody to pressure him into settling the dispute on their terms. He claimed he was detained for 14 hours. After being released, he filed a complaint with the Detection of Crime Branch and the DGP. Parmar has urged the High Court to declare the actions of the cybercell sleuths as illegal and sought a direction to the DGP to initiate a departmental inquiry against the officials involved, including SP Rajdipsinh Zala and his subordinates.
