Somewhere buried in the recesses of the mountain of news which is generated comes one of extreme injustice in a court decision which gives justice. For 17 years, a man, then a boy had the shadow of some criminal case pending against him which showed no progress for close to two decades. As a bench of the High Court quashed and set aside this FIR, the blockade which prevented this man from getting government jobs or other documents got lifted. But not before he had already suffered. For instance in 2011 his application to get a license for heavy vehicles and a taxi was refused since a criminal case was pending against him.
The police system is riddled with such cases. This victim named Devendra Naik, is just one of them. The Goa police system, like the rest of the country is full of Devendra Naiks, who are victims of the policing system as against the justice system. Very often non serious FIRs die to political vendetta, social causes or mass action against a mob, which are not investigated or charge sheets filed, continue to remain in the books, causing impediments for long stretches of time.
The Supreme Court has clearly laid down that “if upon the admitted facts and the documents relied upon by the complainant or the prosecution and without weighing or sifting evidence, no case is made out, the criminal proceedings instituted against the accused are required to be dropped or quashed. Where the allegations in the FIR or the complaint or the accompanying documents taken at their face value, do not constitute the offence alleged, the person proceeded against in such a frivolous criminal litigation has to be saved,” ruled the bench, in the matter of K Ramakrishnan and others of the Union Bank of India.
The Apex court setting aside the High Court order, of not quashing the FIR against them, observed that the trial court under Section 239 and the High Court under Section 482 of the CrPC did not embark upon an inquiry as to whether evidence in question was reliable or not or evidence relied upon was sufficient to proceed further or not. “The inherent powers of the High Court under Section 482 of CrPC could be exercised to quash proceedings, in appropriate cases either to prevent the abuse of the process of any courts or otherwise to secure the ends of justice”, the Apex court ruled.
However, the fault or the problem area lies at the police level. With a majority of litigants not capable of or not willing to move the courts, the unending delays persist at the police station level. The 22 accused in the Velim Church attack case are victims of a similar delay. Complaints were filed against 1500 odd people later shortlisted to 22 specific accused. Some of them are elderly and were nowhere near the Velim Church in February 2012 when an angry mob retaliated when they got to know there were IT raids conducted on the Church and that the priest was not treated with dignity. Some of the 22 were people who were at home watching television, one was a student who was away in Pune. The inclusion of some of the names in these FIRs, have cost people their jobs and their futures with many of them having to leave their highly paying jobs at sea.
The manner in which non-serious FIRs hang like an albatross around your neck contrast so many instances of serious crimes, especially committed by policemen and the influential not reaching the chargesheet or trial stage. For example, the brutal rape of a woman in Camurlim, in 2014, by her neighbours with a woman being one of the perpetrators of violence, does not even figure in the list of active investigations by the police. The perpetrators are not just free but continue to harass the victim.
The Devendra Naik case has given us hope. And should give similar victims strength to get frivolous FIRs quashed.
