Badlapur Encounter: Parents Of Deceased Seek To Withdraw Case Against Cops, High Court Grills State On Why FIR Not Lodged Yet

The parents of the now deceased accused in the infamous Badlapur Sexual assault case on Thursday told the Bombay High Court that they no longer wish to pursue their petition seeking an independent investigation in the "custodial death" of their son.

The accused, who was arrested in August 2024, was killed in an alleged fake encounter case in September. Five policemen, who were present in the van, contended that the deceased snatched a rifle from one of the constables and opened fire injuring one of them. So, in self defence, another officer, shot at him.

Interestingly, in a previous hearing, an enquiry report by a Magistrate was furnished before the bench of Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Dr Neela Gokhale. The report stated that the force used by the five policemen in the altercation with the deceased was 'unjustified' and that these policemen are responsible for the deceased's death.

As per the report, there are no fingerprints of the deceased on the gun. It stated that the police's stance that they fired in private defence is unjustified and under the shadow of suspicion.

Accordingly, the judges had asked the State to act in accordance with law.

On Thursday, the parents of the deceased accused, with folded hands, told the court that they cannot anymore run around for getting the case to its logical end. "Please let us withdraw this case, we cannot run around more," the parents told the judges.

At this, the bench sought to know if the parents were under any pressure for withdrawing the case, to which the parents responded in the negative.

However, the judges made it very clear that "the case cannot be closed like this since much has happened in it now."

Meanwhile, senior counsel Amit Desai assisted by Chief Public Prosecutor Hiten Venegavkar and Additional Public Prosecutor Prajakta Shinde told the bench that it will be deciding on whether to register an FIR or not only after the Judicial Commission headed by former Chief Justice Dilip Bhosale of the Allahabad High Court, submits its report.

Upon being asked, Desai said the State cannot register an FIR against the errant cops only on the basis of the Magistrate's report. He said an independent probe by the State's CID was being done. The senior advocate argued that the magisterial enquiry's scope is limited to determining the cause of death and not assigning responsibility, making it non-binding on the State.

"Magisterial enquiry is for the cause of death...It's a limited enquiry...He is not supposed to go into who is responsible. You need powers of investigation to look into every aspect of the matter. A magistrate does not have the powers of investigation," Desai contended.

The senior advocate further argued that since the case involved custodial death, an FIR should only be filed if there was "unimpeachable evidence" as per precedents set by the Supreme Court.

The judges, however, pointed out that once an Accidental Death Report (ADR) is filed, the State must take it to its logical end by registering an FIR.

"Mr Desai, the commission of enquiry is a parallel thing, but as far as ADR is concerned, it has to be taken to a logical end. Further, the court report can't be on paper without action. It's a full-fledged report with statements... Is the state not duty-bound to register an FIR?" the judges asked.

However, Desai countered that there is a procedure to be followed for filing an FIR and the same cannot be filed on the basis of an ADR.

Countering Desai's contention, the counsel representing the parents of the deceased argued that if an FIR was lodged against the deceased merely on an information, then why can't an FIR be lodged against the cops, when there is a full-fledged report of a judicial officer.

The court indicated that it will pass an interim order regarding this aspect.

The bench will continue hearing the matter on Friday.