Court rap on police for not filing FIR”

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Pulling up Delhi Police for not registering an FIR for over a year on a complaint made by an elderly couple, a trial court has directed Delhi Police Commissioner to file a report giving details of legal provisions that bar an officer from lodging the FIR without prior approval from superiors.

The court was hearing the complaint of a septuagenarian couple, Uma Arora and her husband Santosh Arora — residents of east Delhi — against a property dealer and others for cheating them. Their counsel Rajive R Raj told the court that the elderly couple was being “harassed” and made to run from pillar to post for the past one-and-a half-year just to get the FIR registered.

Ordering registration of the FIR on the complaint of the 70-year-old man, the court took serious objection to a report of a police officer that though he was convinced that a case was made out, the FIR could not be lodged as an approval from the DCP concerned was awaited.

“There exists no provision in the Code of Criminal Procedure which mandates or even requires the approval of any officer or the DCP before registration of the FIR. If the cognisable offence is made out and the IO is of the opinion that an FIR ought to be registered, police are bound to register an FIR,” Metropolitan Magistrate Amitabh Rawat said.

Stating that he was pained to notice that a senior citizen has been subjected to harassment, the court said, “I am of the opinion that it is fit case for registration of the FIR. Despite the passage of more than one year, the police has not cared much to register the FIR if it so warranted,” the magistrate said.

“Let copy of this order be sent to Commissioner of Police, Delhi, and also a report be called regarding statutory provisions which empowers the DCP concerned to give approval without which FIR cannot be registered even if the IO is satisfied of the same,” the court said.

The couple, in the complaint, alleged that they were cheated by a property dealer and others. The accused conspired and knowingly sold a flat to Aroras in 2005 despite the fact that it was already sold a year ago and was mortgaged with Standard Chartered Bank, the complaint said.

(Source:TOI)

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