Can’t file 5 FIRs on one incident, says Delhi HC

New Delhi, September 2

The Delhi High Court has held that the police cannot lodge five FIRs for the same incident and quashed four of them registered for the alleged offences of looting and setting on fire a compound during the Delhi riots last year. There cannot be a second FIR and fresh investigation for the same cognisable offence, the court said.

Delhi riots: multiple complaints

• Five FIRs were lodged by Delhi Police against Atir on complaints by different members of same family
• They alleged their house was set ablaze which caused them a loss of articles worth Rs7-10 lakh
• Atir’s counsel argued all FIRs were in respect of same house and even same fire-brigade extinguished inferno

While maintaining one FIR, the court quashed the other four lodged against the same accused in March last year at Jaffrabad Police Station and all proceedings emanating there from.

“It cannot be said that the incidents were separate or the offences are different. As stated earlier, a perusal of the charge sheets filed in the respective FIRs show that they are more or less identical and the accused are also same,” Justice Subramonium Prasad said.

The court’s order came while allowing four petitions filed by accused Atir, facing prosecution in five FIRs lodged by Delhi Police on complaints by different members of the same family that when they reached their home in Maujpur area on the evening of February 24, they saw their house was set ablaze which caused a loss of articles worth Rs 7-10 lakh.

Advocate Tara Narula, representing Atir, argued that all FIRs were in respect of the same dwelling unit and even the same fire-brigade had come to extinguish the inferno. The Delhi Police claimed that the properties were distinct and the damages had been suffered individually by the residents and that the subject matter of each of the FIRs was different from others.

The court said all five FIRs were identical in their content and more or less a facsimile of one another and pertained to the same occurrence. “The law on the subject has been settled keeping in line with the principles enunciated by the Supreme Court,” it said. — PTI