Court rejects bail plea of govt officer, sends to JC

A senior Delhi government officer, arrested for allegedly threatening a woman magistrate and abusing her on religious lines, was today remanded in judicial custody by a court here.
Link magistrate Sachin Sangwan rejected the bail plea of Shamim Akhtar, a 1996-batch DANICS officer, after he was produced before him and sent him to 14-day judicial custody till September 24.
During arguments on the bail plea, Akhtar's counsel said the investigating officer has not given any satisfactory reply regarding his client's arrest and said Akhtar was a senior government officer who would not flee from justice.
The prosecutor, however, opposed his bail plea saying it was not a fit case for granting bail and he was a habitual offender. He also said that remarks allegedly made by Akhtar were communal in nature and alleged that the accused was not cooperating with IO.

"Tendency of communal violence was there. He was creating law and order problem," the prosecutor argued, adding that previously too, an FIR was registered against Akhtar in 2007.
During the hearing, the court observed that if an FIR was also registered previously against the accused with similar sections, it was a serious matter.

Akhtar has been booked under Sections 506 (criminal intimidation), 509 (words to insult the modesty of a woman), 336 (act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, language, etc) and 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of Rs 50) of the IPC.

According to the police, a fight allegedly broke out between the accused and the metropolitan magistrate at the parking lot of a residential complex at Rajpura Road in north Delhi's Civil Lines area, during which he allegedly threatened the woman and abused her over religious lines.
It said he also allegedly brought a gun and pointed at her, which later turned out to be an air gun.
The magistrate lodged a complaint against Akhtar in July this year, after which he was detained as a preventive measure, police had said.