Police's Job Is To Ensure Social Distancing, Law & Order, They Can't Be Burdened To Bring Files When Accused Has Received Same Under S. 207 CrPC: HP High Court

Observing that once the accused receives documents under Section 207, CrPC free of costs, then the State cannot be burdened again and again to bring the police file along with police officials¸ the Himachal Pradesh High Court on Thursday (May 6) refused to grant bail to a murder accused. The Bench of Justice Anoop Chitkara noted that the requirement of police is more to maintain social distancing and law and order and that they can't be burdened again and again to bring the police file along with the police officials, that too in COVID phase as it will put an unnecessary burden on the infrastructure. Facts in brief The allegations against the petitioner are that on 28th June 2020, in midnight, one Sumo came from Haripur side, and the driver tried to cross the bridge, however, since the bridge was on the higher pedestal, as such, chamber of Sumo struck with the concrete, due to which, oil started leaking. One Mukesh Paswan told them not to drive the vehicle from the bridge because it was under construction, on this the said persons told him that he is posted DC of the area and started hurling abuses to him. After fifteen minutes, all the three occupants of the vehicle (including the bail applicant), came there with sticks and said that laborers (involved in the construction of the bridge) were doing Gundagardi in the area and started beating them. After that, all the laborers started running to save themselves from the beatings, however, they caught hold of Rohit (deceased) and he fell down in a Nallah (creek) 25-30 feet down. Further, on 24th June 2020, all these people compromised the matter between them, however, on 28th June 2020 at midnight, Rohit (deceased) became extremely unwell and he was brought to Mission hospital, where doctors said that he was dead. Based on these allegations, the Police registered the FIR. Court's order The Court perused the bail petition, and noted that a report under Section 173 of Cr.P.C stood filed and the documents were supplied to the accused under Section 207 Cr.P.C, but despite that, the counsel for the petitioner chose to file a fresh summary of challan coupled with a post-mortem report. The Court further remarked, "For the reasons best known to the petitioner, his counsel did not bring to the notice of the Court entire police report as received by him. To consider the arguments of learned counsel for the petitioner, this Court needs to go through the alleged compromise, statements of other witnesses and injured persons recorded under Section 161 of Cr.P.C. The Court also needs to go through the site plan of the spot from where they fell down." Thus, the Court observed that it would be highly unsafe to deny or allow the bail petition based on the skeleton documents, placed by counsel for the petitioner. With this, the petition was dismissed with liberty reserved to the petitioner to file a fresh petition, by annexing the complete police report. Case title - Amit v. State of H. P. [Cr.MP(M) No.830 of 2021] Click Here To Download OrderRead Order

Police's Job Is To Ensure Social Distancing, Law & Order, They Can't Be Burdened To Bring Files When Accused Has Received Same Under S. 207 CrPC: HP High Court

Sparsh Upadhyay

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