Belated Allegations Not Raised In Earlier FIR Indicate Abuse Of Process: Rajasthan High Court

Rajasthan High Court held that non-disclosure of a serious offence within a reasonable time or at a relevant time when an earlier crime was registered against the same accused by the same complainant, would falsify the allegations and render the subsequent complaint/FIR/allegations an abuse of law. While setting aside an FIR alleging rape against the petitioner, the bench of Justice Anoop Kumar Dhand observed that the FIR was lodged after a delay of more than two months from the date of alleged incident, and that too in the background of an existing property dispute between the concerned family members. “…impugned FIR No.127/2021 is nothing but a bundle of lies full of fabricated and malicious allegations and under the changed circumstances, where the petitioner was not found guilty in the first FIR No.80/2021 by the Investigating Officer, it would be absurd to allow the prosecution of the petitioner to continue by considering the aforesaid.”The Court was hearing a quashing petition filed by the petitioner who contended that after the alleged incident of rape, one more incident occurred two days after. It was submitted that the respondents had filed an FIR in relation to the second incident in which no mention of rape or any related offence was made against the petitioner. When the petitioner's involvement in the existing FIR was negated by the police in the report, the rape case was filed after a delay of more than 2 months from the alleged date of incident. The petitioner also highlighted that there was an existing property dispute between their families. And hence, the rape FIR was filed with ulterior motives.After hearing the contentions, the Court made a reference to the Supreme Court case of Batlanki Keshav (Kesava) Kumar Anurag v. State of Telangana and another in which it was held that non-disclosure of the allegations in an earlier FIR by the same complainant was fatal and such disclosure after several months in another FIR was sheer exaggeration and had to be discarded. In this background and the facts submitted by the petitioner, the Court observed that there was no reason to file complaint regarding the alleged incident after a delay of more than 2 months. The Court held that the FIR was filed with mala fide intention and ulterior motive, and was nothing but lies and fabrication. It was held that allowing prosecution under such FIR would be absurd. Accordingly, the petition was allowed and the FIR against the petitioner was set aside. Title: Kamlesh Kumar v State of Rajasthan & Anr. Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (Raj) 165Click Here To Read/Download Order

Belated Allegations Not Raised In Earlier FIR Indicate Abuse Of Process: Rajasthan High Court

Nupur Agrawal

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