Mumbai Court Acquits Ex-Cop in 2010 Custodial Torture Case Over Missing Police Records

A metropolitan court in Mumbai has acquitted a 72-year-old retired police sub-inspector in a 2010 case of alleged custodial torture and illegal detention that led to the death of a domestic worker. Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate D.S. Khedekar ruled that the prosecution failed to establish the charges against former officer Munir Shaikh beyond a reasonable doubt, concluding a trial that spanned nearly sixteen years.

The magistrate cited critical evidentiary gaps in the prosecution's case, most notably the absence of official police records such as station diary entries and duty rosters. Although prosecutors examined twelve witnesses during the lengthy trial, the court observed that there was no documentary proof placing the woman in unlawful custody or establishing the officer's direct involvement in the alleged assault.

The case originated in December 2010 at the Malvani police station in western suburban Mumbai. Investigators alleged that Shaikh had detained 43-year-old domestic worker Kunda Shinde and her teenage daughter following an informal verbal complaint regarding the theft of gold jewelry valued at approximately three lakh rupees from an employer's home.

According to the allegations brought before the court, both the woman and her daughter were kept in unlawful detention without formal arrest records or entries in the daily station register. Shinde's daughter testified that the sub-inspector subjected them to verbal harassment and physical abuse in an effort to extract a confession regarding the missing jewelry.

The situation turned tragic on December 21, 2010, when Shinde attempted suicide by hanging herself inside a restroom at the Malvani police station. Police personnel rushed her to a nearby hospital in critical condition, where she remained under intensive medical care for ten days before succumbing to cardiac arrest on December 31.

Following widespread public outcry and protests by civil rights advocates, the probe was transferred to the Crime Branch Criminal Investigation Department. Investigators eventually charged Shaikh under several provisions of the Indian Penal Code, including wrongful confinement, causing hurt to extort a confession, and abetment of suicide.

During the trial, the defense argued that the officer was being falsely implicated and pointed out the utter lack of contemporaneous documentary corroboration linking him to wrongful restraint. The court agreed with the defense's position that oral testimony alone, clouded by the passage of time and contradictory statements, could not substitute for missing station logs that would verify who detained the victims and when.

The verdict underscores persistent systemic challenges in holding law enforcement accountable in custodial violence cases across India. Legal experts frequently observe that when police stations fail to maintain mandatory records or when vital station diaries vanish, securing convictions against serving or retired personnel becomes exceedingly difficult for state prosecutors.

While Shaikh walked free as a senior citizen more than a decade after his retirement, the outcome leaves the deceased woman's surviving family members without legal closure. State prosecutors have not yet indicated whether they plan to challenge the acquittal before the Bombay High Court, while human rights monitors continue to stress the urgent need for strict digital logging to prevent police records from disappearing in custodial inquiries.