Cops seek cancellation of FIR against Mayor

Sandeep Rana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 27

Nearly two months after the UT police booked city Mayor Asha Kumari Jaswal of the BJP and her two party councillors under various sections of the IPC, including those pertaining to trespass and criminal intimidation, after they visited Snehalaya to meet a sodomy victim without permission, the police have moved a local court seeking cancellation of the FIR registered against them.

Snehalaya is a home for the destitute and abandoned children at Maloya.

“...Asha Jaswal, along with other people, came to Snehalaya to distribute laddoos among children... After making an entry in the register at Snehalaya, she took a round of the place with officials of the Home to distribute laddoos and left... During the investigation the allegations of the Director (UT Social Welfare Department) could not be proved. Therefore, it is recommended that permission to send the case as cancelled may be accorded,” said the report filed by police in the court on Friday.

The court had summoned the father of the victim and the complainant, Nishu Singhal, Director of the Social Welfare Department, today stating that, “...the cancellation report has been filed before me...”

The case

The complaint mentioned that the Mayor’s visit to Snehalaya to meet a sodomy victim was in violation of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, as visitors could meet children only in the presence of the Child Welfare Officer. According to the complaint, the visitors also allegedly videographed the employees present at the shelter home. They were even made to stand in a queue.  A case under Sections 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter a public servant from duty), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter a public servant from the discharge of his duty), 342 (wrongful confinement), 228 (intentional insult or interruption to a public servant sitting in judicial proceeding), 448 (house trespass), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of a common intention) of the IPC, Section 23 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and Sections 74 and 87 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, was registered against them at the Maloya police station. The Mayor, along with councillors Rajesh Kalia and Ravi Kant Sharma, members of the public and mediapersons, had visited the Home without permission. 

BJP had taken up case with Rajnath 

The police case against the Mayor of the BJP and two party councillors had evoked strong opposition from BJP leaders, who had not only taken up the case with UT Administrator VP Singh Badnore and Adviser Parimal Rai, but had also reached Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, seeking strict action against the officers concerned for registering an FIR against the three without even hearing them.