'You don't have license to attack': Ex-MLA Kadu gets 3-month jail for assaulting public servant

Mumbai: Seven years after he assaulted a public servant, former Maharashtra MLA Bachchu Kadu was on Tuesday convicted and sentenced to three months' imprisonment by a court here, noting that being a legislator "didn't give him a license" to attack.

Additional Sessions Judge Satyanarayan Navander imposed a Rs 10,000 penalty on Kadu. His sentencing has been suspended till he files an appeal in a higher court, and he was granted bail.

While Kadu had not hit the complainant IAS officer and merely made a gesture with an iPad, the court noted that a threatening gesture was enough to create an apprehension of imminent use of criminal force.

The court also observed that officers involved in policy-making and planning should have protection so that they can work fearlessly and effectively.

The court convicted Kadu under sections 353 (assaulting or using criminal force against a public servant to deter them from performing their duty) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code, while absolving him of the intentional insult charge.

"No doubt, there can be grievances about governance or management of a particular department or even regarding conducting the examinations during the recruitment processes of the government. But that does not mean that any representative of the people would go to such an officer and attack him violently, intimidating the officer and disrupting his business," the court said.

While the accused might genuinely have wanted to address a grievance, his approach was "inherently improper", the court said, stressing that noble purpose notwithstanding, a public servant cannot be threatened with harm to life or reputation.

"Merely because the accused was a sitting MLA, he didn't have a licence to deter a public servant by criminally intimidating him or by assaulting him in his office," the judge stated.

The incident occurred on September 26, 2018, when Kadu, the founder of Prahar Janshakti Party, visited the office of IAS officer Pradeep P, the then Director of the Information & Technology Department in Mumbai, to discuss mega recruitment by the Maharashtra IT Corporation.

The prosecution alleged that the discussion escalated into a heated argument, during which Kadu became aggressive.

He picked up an iPad from the officer's table and made a gesture to hit him, the prosecution said.

A case was registered based on a complaint lodged by the IAS officer a day after the incident, which stated he was in shock.

The court rejected the defence's argument that since no actual physical force was applied, the offence was not committed.

The judge stated that the threatening gesture itself was enough to create an apprehension of imminent use of criminal force.

The court stated that section 353 of the IPC aims to ensure that public officials carry out their responsibilities, without fear of intimidation or violence, to uphold the rule of law and maintain public order.

"The officers who are in policy making and planning should have protection so that they can work fearlessly and effectively,” the court observed.

The judge said Kadu could have explored legal ways to address the grievances.

"He was a sitting MLA. Many avenues were open for him. He could have addressed his complaint even directly through the Chief Minister,” the court said.

The judgement highlighted that Kadu, instead of choosing the "appropriate and legitimate way", went to the office of the informant and assaulted him in "unsuited fashion", which maligned the image not only of the officer, but of the government.