‘Misuse of power’: Punjab and Haryana Hight Court quashes FIR in drug case, asks DGPs to go for video recording

Justice Gill has also directed the Hoshiarpur SSP to take action against the police officers who were behind registration of the FIR against Nitin Sharma on April 1, 2017.

Nitin was booked under Section 22 of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS) for the alleged recovery of 135 grams of Alprazolam by officials of Gardhiwala Police Station. Nitin’s wife Chetna Sharma had approached the High Court in May 2017 seeking fair investigation into the FIR and alleged that her husband had been forcibly taken out by the police on March 30, 2017, along with a vehicle belonging to her brother-in-law.

However, the police had said in the FIR that a police party was patrolling in an area on April 1 during which Nitin’s vehicle was stopped and the intoxicating substance was recovered. The police party was headed by ASI Satnam Singh, the same officer who along with other police personnel had arrested Nitin from his house two days day earlier, according to Chetna Sharma.

The raid at Nitin’s house had co-incidentally got recorded by a CCTV camera installed at the gate of a State Bank of India branch located just at a distance of few yards from his house. In December 2017, the High Court observed that the police version is contrary to the CCTV footage and directed the Punjab Police IG Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh to probe the case.

IG Kunwar Vijay Pratap in his report told the High Court that the FIR deserved to be quashed as the facts revealed that Nitin had been already in police custody prior to the registration of FIR.

On March 31, a police constable, on his personal mobile phone, had facilitated a phone call between Nitin and his family, the probe revealed, leading to the proof that Nitin was already in custody before registration of FIR.