Nine years on, Chandigarh court acquits five elderly men of trespassing, hurting woman

The five accused in the case — Anil Sood, SK Parmar, PK Mahajan (died during trial in January 2019), Satish Sharma, and Gopal Mittal, all residents of Sector 48, Chandigarh — were acquitted on Friday under sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 452 (house trespass after preparation for hurt, assault or wrongful restraint), and 506 ( criminal intimidation) of IPC.

The court said, “Due to the unfair and faulty investigation conducted by both the investigating officers and the SHO concerned, the accused persons fundamental right of life and liberty as provided under Article 21 of the Constitution was curtailed for more than nine years and had to face trial before the court. The precious period of life after retirement, which the accused persons had the right to spend with their families, has gone wasted by the trial in the case for more than 9 years.”

It added that despite it having been established in a subsequent inquiry that no alleged offence had been committed, both the investigating officers (SI Raghubir Singh and SI Gurmeet Singh) and the SHO concerned (Kirpal Singh) knowingly disobeyed the directions of the investigation report submitted by the DSP and filed incorrect document with the intent to cause injury to the accused persons.

The court, acting stern in the matter, ordered, “The act of both the investigating officers and the SHO concerned attributes to the commission of offence under section 166-A, 167 of IPC. The offence under section 166-A IPC is cognizable offence. The copy of this judgment be sent to the SSP Chandigarh, through proper channel, to take legal action against the above mentioned delinquent officials as per law and to sensitise the SHOs and investigating officers working under him regarding fair investigations and civil and fundamental rights of individuals. He is directed to submit his report before this court on or before February 1, 2023.”

As per the police, in the present case, the five men had allegedly asked the woman to remove some flower pots and uproot some plants, which she had refused to do.

The FIR filed by the woman alleged that subsequently on November 6, 2012, at about 10 pm, the five accused first barged into their house illegally and then proceeded to beat her and her family members up.

The accused persons, through their counsels Barun Jaswal and Ashok Sharma in reply to the allegations, pleaded their innocence and stated that they have been falsely implicated.

The court after hearing the arguments said that as per the story of the prosecution, the five accused persons beat up the complainant and her husband and other family member… “No medical examination was conducted on any of the injured witness or by the police
officials…”