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HC quashes FIR against former DGP in ST Act case. Says Retd Cop’s Wife Filed Case By Abusing Process Of Law.

Shimla: The Himachal Pradesh high court has quashed an FIR registered against former DGP Sanjay Kundu and nine other police officers under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

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The case was related to a complaint filed by Meena Negi, the wife of compulsorily retired police head constable Dharam Sukh Negi.

The court ruled that the FIR was filed by abusing the process of law.

A bench headed by Justice Virender Singh said that no sufficient evidence was found to establish that departmental proceedings, initiated, culminated, and upheld by the high court against the complainant’s husband, were carried out solely on the grounds that the couple belongs to ST category.

“As such, their bald assertion regarding this fact is too short to take any action against the petitioners (police officers),” said the court while ordering the quashing of the FIR in its 21-page judgment. The court also recorded that it was admitted that former head constable Negi, as per the record, was habitual in making false complaints against senior police officers and of absenteeism from duty, for which he was penalised with minor and major penalties since 1993.

It also came to the fore during the hearing that the FIR against the 10 police officers was lodged in Sept 2024 after a gap of about four years from the alleged cause of action, as Negi was compulsorily retired from service in July 2020.

The FIR was registered on Sept 21, 2024, under Section 3(1) (p) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, at Sadar police station, Shimla, against former DGP Kundu and other serving as well as retired police officers, including Himanshu Mishra, Arvind Sharda, Diwakar Datt Sharma, Shalini Agnihotri, Anju Ara Khan, Bhagat Singh Tha kur, Pankaj Sharma, Meenakshi, and Baldev Sharma.

The FIR was registered following the court’s directions as the complainant had moved a plea before the court alleging that the family was harassed mentally, socially, and financially by senior police officers on “concocted charges”.

“Although, after investigating the matter, the police decided to file the cancellation report, in this case, however, in the peculiar facts and circumstances of the present case, the petitioners (10 police officers) cannot be left in the lurch to wait for the decision of the authorities on the cancellation report. The petitioners are entitled to have a sigh of relief, as, even during the pendency of the cancellation report, indirectly, they have to suffer the sting of registration of the FIR against them,” held the court in its Jan 10 judgment.

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