Vendetta in 62% cases: Gill panel

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 19

Implication of innocent persons by Punjab Police over the past decade has been a matter of guesses and assumptions for long. But the second “interim” report submitted by the Justice Mehtab Singh Gill panel suggests the police had been on a “false-implication spree”.

The commission has so far detected false implication and political vendetta in more than 62 per cent cases examined in just five months of its constitution. The commission has, in fact, detected 177 such cases so far. It has, in all, examined 284 cases out of the more than 4,000 complaints received.

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The panel, in its second report, has not only recommended cancellation of 37 FIRs, but also suggested compensation in another four cases, where the accused have been acquitted by the courts. The amount is to be recovered from the erring investigating officers.

Recommendations for prosecution of the complainant or the investigating officer, including a DSP, under Section 182 of the IPC have also been made in these four cases. Section 182 deals with “false information with intent to cause a public servant to use his lawful power to the injury of another person”.

In six cases, the panel has provided relief to the complainants, including recommendations on not filing challan before the court concerned against the accused. 

In all, the commission has found political vendetta in 47 cases identified by it as false.

The commission, at the same time, has dismissed 59 complaints. Heading the two-member commission, Justice Gill said the cases primarily revolved around matrimonial and civil disputes.

In a letter to the Punjab Additional Chief Secretary, Justice Gill and District and Sessions ex-Judge BS Mehandiratta said the complaints accepted by the commission involved cases in which the final investigation report or the challan under Section 173 of the CrPC had not been presented so far, or where the accused had been acquitted by the courts. 

The panel in the letter also asked the Home and Judicial departments that “requests should be made to the courts concerned in a proper and legal manner for cancellation of FIRs”. The CM has marked the report to the Home Secretary for detailed examination and further action.

Looking into more than 4,000 complaints of false implication in criminal cases during the past decade, the Justice Gill panel had submitted its first interim report on August 23. The panel, among other things, recommended compensation in more than 70 pc of the cases examined in less than four months of its constitution. It, in fact, recommended compensation in 130 cases out of 178 examined till then.

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