A petition seeking quashing of an FIR regarding a police constable's death. The High Court declined to interfere with the ongoing investigation, refusing to entertain the petition and dismissing it. The court allowed the petitioner liberty to apply for bail.
The writ petition was dismissed; liberty granted to apply for bail.
This page shows the compact analysis of this judgement. The full analysis — procedural history, issue-by-issue holdings with ratio and obiter, advocates, and paragraph-level evidence for every claim — is being added to the record in batches and will appear here when this judgement has been through it.
Court No. - 33
Case :- CRIMINAL MISC. WRIT PETITION No. - 9153 of 2019
Petitioner :- Harendra Singh Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 3 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Tarun Kumar Tripathi Counsel for Respondent :- G.A.
Hon'ble Manoj Misra,J. Hon'ble Suresh Kumar Gupta,J .
Heard learned counsel for the petitioner; learned A.G.A. for the respondents 1, 2 and 3; and perused the record.
The instant petition seeks quashing of the First Information Report dated 21.03.2019, registered as Case Crime No.0030 of 2019, under Section 302 I.P.C., Police Station Kamasin, District Banda.
The impugned first information report has been lodged by brother of a deceased-constable. The deceased-constable was a lady constable and she was found dead in her quarter allotted at the police line concerned. The informant has alleged that she has been murdered whereas an effort was there to show that it was a case of suicide. It is alleged that despite repeated efforts, the first information report was not registered and, therefore, letter was addressed to the Superintendent of Police, Banda. First information report has been registered against the petitioner, who himself is a constable in the police force and against an unknown person.
The learned counsel for the petitioner has contended that, from the postmortem report of the deceased, it appears to be a case of suicide. It has been submitted that a suicide note was also left by the deceased, which indicates involvement of other persons in sexual harassment of the deceased.
On the submissions of the learned counsel for the petitioner, on 09.04.2019, we had passed the following order :-
"The attention of the court has been invited to page 68 of the paper book so as to demonstrate that the Superintendent of Police, Banda, in his communication dated 4th September, 2018, has referred to a suicide note left by the deceased in which allegations were levelled against four police personnel.
Learned counsel for the petitioner prays that if the suicide note is perused, various facts would become clear to the court.
The suicide note is not there on record but since it has been referred to in communication dated 4th September, 2018, which is there on record at page 68, we deem it appropriate to require the learned AGA to ascertain whether there is a suicide note or not, as referred to in the letter dated 4th September, 2018 and, if it is there, then a copy thereof should be produced.
For the said purpose, learned AGA prays for and is allowed ten days time.
Put up this matter on 19th April, 2019. "
Pursuant to the above order, the learned A.G.A. has obtained extracts from the case-diary and has also produced a photocopy of the alleged suicide note.
The suicide note is partly in Hindi and partly in English and it does not indict the petitioner though it blames other persons.
Sri Deepak Mishra, learned A.G.A., has submitted that doubt has been expressed as regards the authenticity of the suicide note and the same has been submitted for examination and some discrepancy in the writing has been found and it is not absolutely certain whether the contents of the suicide note are in the handwriting of the deceased.
The postmortem report indicates that death was due to asphyxia as a result of anti-mortem hanging but there appears a contusion 2 cm x 1 cm on the left forearm 5 c.m. above wrist joint. The said contusion is in addition to the ligature mark around the neck. As to how the said contusion was caused is not explained by the material on record.
As it is a case of unnatural death of a lady police constable within the premises of police compound, the matter will have to be investigated and all possible clues would have to be examined.
Under the circumstances, any interference on our part in the investigation might become hurdle for the investigating agency to arrive at the truth.
In view of the above as also because there is no allegation of mala fide against the investigating officer, we decline to entertain this petition and leave it open to the petitioner to apply for bail, if so advised.
With the aforesaid liberty, this petition is dismissed .
Order Date :- 22.4.2019 m.a.
1 issue framed by the court
Whether the High Court should quash the FIR and interfere with the criminal investigation into the death of a constable.
Harendra Singh
State Of U.P.
Manoj Misra
Suresh Kumar Gupta
As recorded by the court registry
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