Delhi High Court Rejects Woman's Plea Seeking FIR Into Daughter's Death In 2013 Over Alleged Political Conspiracy Involving Arvind Kejriwal

The Delhi High Court has recently rejected a petition filed by a mother seeking registration of FIR into her daughter's death in 2013 pursuant to an alleged political conspiracy involving former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Kumar Vishvas and other Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) workers.

Justice Neena Bansal Krishna dismissed the plea filed by Kalawati who challenged the trial court order passed last year rejecting her application seeking registration of FIR under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

In her complaint filed in 2022, Kalawati alleged that she believed that her daughter was murdered by people like Arvind Kejriwal, Kumar Vishwas, Vandana, Kuldeep Pawar, Gaurav, Pankaj etc. because she hailed from backward class. She further alleged that people like Arvind Kejriwal got political benefit from her daughter's death.

It was her case that her daughter was working in Parivartan Institution along with Arvind Kejriwal. In 2013, her daughter met with an accident while going to attend a party meeting.

She alleged the family members were allowed stay in the hospital only during the day time and that the doctors i were communicating only with Arvind Kejriwal who in turn used to inform her and her family members about the daughter's medical condition.

She said that her daughter remained on ventilator for a month and was shifted to the normal ward from ICU four days prior to her death. She died in August 2013.

She alleged further that when she went to meet Arvind Kejriwal, he shouted on her and told her not to utter the name of her daughter as he had managed to get the case file closed and no FIR was registered.

Vide the impugned order, the trial court observed that no offence under the SC/ST Act was committed and that merely because the deceased belonged to the Scheduled Caste community, it would not be enough to bring the matter within the ambit of the enactment.

While dismissing the plea, Justice Krishna noted that an FIR was initially registered in 2013 and an untrace final report was submitted after conducting due investigations which was accepted by the ACJM.

The court also noted that the mother's Protest Petition before the ACJM was accepted and further investigations were directed to be conducted.

Justice Krishna observed that once the FIR about the incident had already been registered and investigations had been undertaken, the law does not permit the registration of second FIR on the same incident.

“It is also pertinent to observe that the entire incident in which Smt. Santosh Koli suffered grievous injuries which eventually proved to be fatal, had happened in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh and no part of the said incident occurred in the jurisdiction of Delhi,” the court said.

It added that no fresh FIR can be directed to be registered, as was rightly observed by the trial court in the impugned order.

The court further said that neither any caste-based abuse or remarks to insult or humiliate were uttered in the case which is the most common offence committed generally against the victims under the SC/ST Act, 1989.

“Even if all the averments of the petitioner-Kalawati made in the complaint are accepted, there is no caste-based abuse or remarks to insult, abuse or humiliate which can be deciphered, except that the petitioner-Kalawati imputes motive on the named persons to have allegedly murdered her daughter because of their caste , which is essentially based on her hunch and has no basis,” the court said.

Title: KALAWATI v. THE STATE GOVT. OF NCT OF DELHI

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (Del) 1105

Click here to read order