Coming down heavily on Delhi Police for not registering an FIR in a sexual assault case and encouraging the parties to arrive on a compromise in the same, the Delhi High Court has ordered a vigilance inquiry into the matter.
A Single-Judge Bench of Justice Subramonium Prasad on Tuesday observed that non-registration of an FIR in the event that the commission of a cognizable offence was disclosed went against the law laid down by the Supreme Court.
The Court passed the order on an anticipatory bail application filed by the accused in an FIR registered at Moti Nagar police station. The petitioner wiman also mentioned a sexual assault complaint made by her at Kapashera police station in July 2020, on ehich no FIR was registered .
The Court said the perusal of the record indicated that the medical examination of the prosecutrix/complainant in relation to FIR was conducted before the registration of the FIR but the MLC was conducted on the basis of DD Entry.
“This raises the suspicion that the instant FIR had not been registered at the time it was alleged…,” it noted.
The court directed the DCP, Vigilance, Delhi Police to submit a report on its queries within two months. The complainant in both matters – in respect of the FIR filed last year and the ‘compromised matter’ before Kapashera police station in July 2020 – was the same. However, the allegations in both cases were levelled against two different men.
The counsel representing the accused in the Moti Nagar FIR submitted that it was a “classic case of honey trap” as the complainant and her husband have been previously involved in a similar case. The court was told that one another man had been “similarly trapped” by the woman and her husband, who only “sought to extort money from the victims” by lodging false complaints of sexual assault. The counsel made mention of the Kapashera police station complaint.
“The learned senior counsel has submitted that in (that) case, Rs 50 lakhs had been demanded from him by the prosecutrix and her husband for the matter to be settled. It has been stated that on settlement, the prosecutrix did not undergo medical examination and even gave in writing to the SHO, police station Kapashera that she was retracting her complaint regarding allegations of rape on the ground that she had filed the same in a fit of anger,” recorded the court in its order.
Regarding the Moti Nagar FIR, the police told the court that the call detail records revealed that both the woman and the accused would frequently talk to each other. The police told the court that a chargesheet was filed without the accused’s arrest and a non-bailable warrant was issued against him only after he failed to appear before the court. The police confirmed that the woman had compromised the 2017 complaint which was made before
Kapashera police station.
The counsel representing the complainant denied the allegation of the case being a honey trap and submitted that it was only a means to discredit her and her allegations.
Directing the trial court to reconsider the matter pertaining to the issuance of the non-bailable warrant, which was under challenge, the High Court restrained the police from arresting the accused till February 2, the date on which the trial court will hear the matter.