Crime against women: Trial court rules out automatic arrests
14 July 2014 12:43 AM GMT
Going a step ahead of the Supreme Court judgment which ruled out automatic arrest in cases of dowry harassment, a trial court in Delhi said that in all cases of crime against women, arrest should not be done before taking the consent of senior police officials. The observation came while granting bail to a man accused of rape, after taking a look at a list of FIR’s where allegations have been found to be wrongly mentioned.
Additional session judge (ASJ), Kamini Lau said the manner in which repeated FIRs have been filed over the last two years, majority of which relate to offences against women is a cause of serious concern. ‘If these repeated complaints/ FIRs are on the basis of false grounds then the issue involved is relating to abuse of laws relating to offences against women which only dilutes the cause in genuine cases and hence the obligation to ensure that such an abuse is checked,’ the court said.
The defence counsel appearing for accused Narender Pal Kashyap, submitted a list of FIR’s where the allegations have been found to be incorrect. ‘In cases where allegations involve offence against women, then as a matter of abundant caution the arrest of the accused should be after application of mind by the senior officers,’ said the ASJ. The trial court granted bail to the Narender on furnishing personal bond of Rs 50,000, after keeping in view the DNA fingerprinting report, which shows that the profile generated from the exhibits of prosecutrix have been found to be dissimilar from the profile generated from the exhibits of the applicant.
However, the court also said that it does not mean that undue leverage would be given to the offender. ‘Before the arrest is affected in such cases, to avoid allegations of connivance or bias at the local level and of illegal detention on the basis of false accusation, the senior officer of the district should apply his mind,’ said the court.
Additional session judge (ASJ), Kamini Lau said the manner in which repeated FIRs have been filed over the last two years, majority of which relate to offences against women is a cause of serious concern. ‘If these repeated complaints/ FIRs are on the basis of false grounds then the issue involved is relating to abuse of laws relating to offences against women which only dilutes the cause in genuine cases and hence the obligation to ensure that such an abuse is checked,’ the court said.
The defence counsel appearing for accused Narender Pal Kashyap, submitted a list of FIR’s where the allegations have been found to be incorrect. ‘In cases where allegations involve offence against women, then as a matter of abundant caution the arrest of the accused should be after application of mind by the senior officers,’ said the ASJ. The trial court granted bail to the Narender on furnishing personal bond of Rs 50,000, after keeping in view the DNA fingerprinting report, which shows that the profile generated from the exhibits of prosecutrix have been found to be dissimilar from the profile generated from the exhibits of the applicant.
However, the court also said that it does not mean that undue leverage would be given to the offender. ‘Before the arrest is affected in such cases, to avoid allegations of connivance or bias at the local level and of illegal detention on the basis of false accusation, the senior officer of the district should apply his mind,’ said the court.
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