Four-year jail term to cop, lawyer for implicating man in false rape case

A sub-inspector and a lawyer have been sentenced to four years in jail for implicating a man in a false rape case with the judge observing that when “protectors of rule of law become destructors, then court must respond with firm hands”.

The court said that “a revenge drama or Bollywood pot boiler” kind of plot was hatched to avenge a police official’s suspension in a molestation case and stressed that police and advocates, who play a pivotal role in justice delivery system and, unquestionably bound by probity, integrity and ethics.

“Police and advocates play a pivotal role in justice delivery system in any criminal matter. They are unquestionably bound by probity, integrity and professional ethics.

“Though, any advocate enjoys privileged relationship with his client, he has, certainly, no business to frame anyone in a false case,” Additional Sessions Judge Manoj Jain observed.

The court’s observation came in a case in which two policemen, a lawyer and a court staff lodged a false rape case against Sushil Gulati. One of the policemen was suspended for allegedly molesting Gulati’s wife in 2000.

Proceedings against two accused - the then Inspector who was suspended on molestation charge, and a court staff were abated as they died during the pendency of trial.

Gulati himself expired in 2014 and had spent over two months in jail.

“Present case tells a sordid tale of two police officials and an advocate who, with the help of others, have shown the audacity of framing an innocent man in a serious case of rape in a very ingenious manner,” the judge said.

“Offence committed by an illiterate man or committed under ignorance or by a person under compulsion may still be pardonable but offence committed by those who are called the protectors of Law is intolerable. When such protectors of Rule of Law become destructors, then court must respond with firm hands,” it observed.

The court sentenced a then sub-inspector and an advocate to four years in jail for conspiring against Gulati in the year 2000 and also imposed a fine of Rs 1.5 lakh each on both the convicts.

“Unfortunately, Gulati is no more alive to see that his malefactors now stand nailed down finally. Culmination point has come little late but it is aptly said that mills of God grind slowly but they grind exceedingly small,” judge said.

“Such revenge drama is normally seen in a fiction or may be seen on a silver screen. Rarely, one comes across such devilish but meticulous plot in real life,” it observed.