No sanction needed for prosecuting cops: Court

The officers were charged with beating up the complainant, as he did not wear a helmet while driving his two-wheeler.

Dismissing a revision petition against a magisterial court order, a Delhi court has observed that no “prior sanction” is required for prosecuting police personnel for allegedly beating up a person.

The observation has come in a case where two Delhi Police Traffic personnel, Ghuman Singh and Rajesh Kumar, had challenged a magisterial court order which had framed a formal charge against them under Section 323 of the IPC (voluntarily causing hurt with common intention) for beating up and causing grevious hurt to the complainant, Satish Kumar.

The officers had argued before court that they have immunity under Section 197 of CrPC (prior sanction required for prosecution of public servant for offences committed during discharge of official duty).

Rejecting their contention, Special CBI Judge Alok Agarwal said, “If the act itself falls beyond the scope of official duty, there is no need for any such sanction. The act, as alleged in the present case, is beating up and causing hurt to the complainant. This obviously does not fall within the scope of official duty of traffic police officers,” Agarwal said.

The court told the officers to appear before the trial court and directed the magisterial court to issue a fresh notice to them for offence under Section 323.

According to the complaint, on May 11, 2010, the officers stopped the complainant and challaned him for not wearing a helmet while driving his two-wheeler. The complainant was asked to pay Rs 500.

The officers then refused to return the RC of his vehicle. When the complainant protested, he was beaten up.

Kaunain Sheriff M

Kaunain Sheriff M is an award-winning investigative journalist and the National Health Editor at The Indian Express. He is the author of Johnson & Johnson Files: The Indian Secrets of a Global Giant, an investigation into one of the world’s most powerful pharmaceutical companies. With over a decade of experience, Kaunain brings deep expertise in three areas of investigative journalism: law, health, and data. He currently leads The Indian Express newsroom’s in-depth coverage of health. His work has earned some of the most prestigious honours in journalism, including the Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism, the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) Award, and the Mumbai Press Club’s Red Ink Award. Kaunain has also collaborated on major global investigations. He was part of the Implant Files project with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which exposed malpractices in the medical device industry across the world. He also contributed to an international investigation that uncovered how a Chinese big-data firm was monitoring thousands of prominent Indian individuals and institutions in real time. Over the years, he has reported on several high-profile criminal trials, including the Hashimpura massacre, the 2G spectrum scam, and the coal block allocation case. Within The Indian Express, he has been honoured three times with the Indian Express Excellence Award for his investigations—on the anti-Sikh riots, the Vyapam exam scam, and the abuse of the National Security Act in Uttar Pradesh. ... Read More

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