Protect close relatives of accused from unnecessary harassment, says High Court

Tribune News Service

Saurabh Malik

Chandigarh, April 28

Taking cognisance of a trend to rope in “close relatives” of the accused – particularly woman – for exerting pressure on the entire family, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has called upon the law enforcement agencies to take proactive measures.

In a significant judgment liable to safeguard the rights and dignity of the close relatives, the high court has asked the police to ensure that the innocents are not harassed unnecessarily at the instance of unscrupulous complaints for putting pressure on the entire family of the accused.

The ruling by Justice Gurvinder Singh Gill came in a case where a woman claimed that she was roped in simply to pressurise her husband, an accused in a cheating and forgery case. His counsel told the Bench that this was “somehow a trend in the current times”.

The matter was placed before Justice Gill’s Bench after the woman filed a petition seeking the quashing of an FIR registered in October last year at the Rama Mandi police station in Jalandhar district under Sections 201, 406, 420, 465, 467, 468, 471 and 120-B of the IPC and Section 13 of the Punjab Travel Professionals (Regulation) Act, 2014.

The Bench, during the course of hearing, was told by the petitioner’s counsel that the complainant in the case was defrauded of Rs 23.5 lakh. Out of the total, Rs 50, 000 was stated to have been collected by the petitioner.

After hearing the arguments and going through the documents, Justice Gill asserted that the court upon the FIR’s perusal found that a “very passive role” had been attributed to the petitioner, the wife of the main accused. The amount was “very small” and that too in cash. It was stated to have been collected by the petitioner after going to the complainant’s house.

“Under these circumstances, Jalandhar CP is directed to ensure that the allegations qua the petitioner are scrutinised minutely before presentation of challan and to ensure that innocent people are not harassed at the instance of unscrupulous complaints, as is somehow observed in several cases wherein close relatives of the main accused, particularly the ladies are nominated in the FIR to pressurise the entire family of accused,” Justice Gill asserted, while disposing of the petition.

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