The high court on Thursday dubbed Calcutta police “unscrupulous” for its “highhandedness” in driving out a trader from his rented shop in Burrabazar and keeping it under lock and key over the past nine months.

The “illegal” ouster of Madhusudan Sharma, his lawyer alleged, was plotted by the landlord who acted in collusion with a few police officers.

Justice Debasish Kar Gupta ordered Ajey Ranade, the deputy commissioner (central), and Uma Sankar Ojha, the officer-in-charge of Burrabazar police station, to appear before him on Friday.

He also asked principal secretary (home) A.M. Chakraborty to ensure that the police produce all documents related to the ouster on Friday.

“The incident has put a question mark on the role of the police... They have failed to protect the rights of the common people,” Justice Kar Gupta observed.

He pulled up Ojha for ignoring his earlier order to produce all documents of the case on Thursday. “Why was the general diary book not produced? What actions were taken after the trader approached senior officers?” the judge asked.

On May 12 last year, sub-inspectors R. Mishra and P.K. Mondal, of Burrabazar police station, raided Sharma’s shop on Mullick Street and evicted him and his wife. Ignoring the trader’s demand that they produce a court order for the ouster, the officers locked the shutter of the shop.

Sharma wrote to senior officers, including then police commissioner Prasun Mukherjee, but there was no response. He finally moved the high court on Wednesday.

Sharma’s lawyer Amit Pan said his client had contested the landlord’s prayer for an eviction order. “While the suit was pending, the landlord engaged the policemen to drive out my client from the premises,” Pan alleged.

When contacted, Ranade said: “I am unaware of any order asking me to appear in court on Friday.”