No High Court relief for logistics firm employees who ‘delivered knife used in murder’

The petitioners Dinesh Sahu and Harishankar Sahu – both employees of the logistics company, Elastic Run – were accused of helping deliver some banned knives that were allegedly used in a murder.

In their petition, Dinesh Sahu — senior area manager at Elastic Run — and Harishankar Sahu, a delivery service agent, argued that their roles were “strictly ministerial and mechanical, confined to pickup and delivery of sealed consignments without any knowledge of their contents or the criminal intent of purchasers”.

“The Master Services Agreement expressly prohibits tampering with packages, and employees are contractually bound to deliver items intact without inspection,” their counsel Devashish Tiwari argued.

The state’s counsel, however, opposed quashing of the FIR against the two petitioners by arguing that “button operated/ spring-assisted knives are prohibited under the Arms Act” and that the petitioners “cannot escape criminal liability merely on the ground that they were unaware of the contents of the package they delivered”.

In its ruling, the Bench cites the FIR as alleging that the knives were delivered by the company “despite prior communications and warnings from the police authorities to e-commerce platforms to desist from supplying such prohibited items”.

“Whether the petitioners had actual knowledge of the contents, whether they acted negligently, and whether safe-harbour protections under the IT Act are available to them, are all matters requiring investigation and cannot be conclusively determined at this preliminary stage. Accordingly, we see no ground to invoke our extraordinary jurisdiction to quash the FIR at the threshold,” the court held.

The FIR that was registered on July 19 names six people – including the two petitioners – and invokes sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

This FIR in turn was based on a murder and robbery case registered two days before against Sameer Tandon and Kunal Tiwari, who were allegedly accused of ordering the knives online.

When contacted, petitioner’s counsel Tiwari said that holding logistics employees liable for the delivery of prohibited items “is deeply concerning for the state’s emerging industrial and investment climate”.

“It is imperative that the law strikes a balance to protect frontline workers who strictly adhere to contractual duties without direct knowledge of criminal misuse. We are exploring possible legal remedies to challenge the judgment,” Tiwari told The Indian Express.

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