The Bombay high court yesterday (June 25) gave the Bombay police time to submit an investigation progress report into the arrest of 36-year-old Marathi film producer Swapna Patker for allegedly practising at a hospital at Bandra in Bombay for at least two years by using a fake Ph.D degree of a clinical psychologist before she was removed from the job. Swapna’s advocate informed the HC bench of Justices S.S. Shinde and G.A. Sanap that a magistrate had rejected her bail application on merit, and it was now being challenged before the sessions court. The HC had been moved as she had been in custody for 18 days in Byculla jail.
The public prosecutor sought to submit a detailed report on the factual position. The HC requested the sessions court to dispose of her bail plea by June 28. Swapna, in another case, has accused certain persons of stalking her at the behest of Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut and her own estranged husband. It is Swapna Patker’s case that in May, she had filed a writ petition against the Bombay police for not lodging an FIR against Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut, because of which the police had filed an FIR against her, based on a complaint. What’s more, it has been alleged by Patker that to make the offence non-bailable, they have wrongly applied section 467 which carries life term. This is violation of human rights, the producer has claimed.