'Important To Proceed Against Uniformed Criminals' : Calcutta High Court Directs Action Against Police Officer For Misuse Of Section 41A CrPC

Coming down heavily on the police for attempting to harass a citizen by misusing Section 41A of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the Calcutta High Court has directed the Director General of Police to initiate inquiry against the concerned investigating officer.

The High Court was considering the anticipatory bail application filed by one Ranjit De who was served a notice under Section 41A to appear before the officer in relation to a crime.

The case related to a conspiracy hatched by three persons to present a forged cheque for encashment. After perusing the case records, the court noted that the petitioner had not even a remote link to the conspirators. "

"This appears to be a case of harassment or extortion by the investigating officer and immediate appropriate disciplinary measures must be instituted against possible unruly conduct", a division bench of Justices Sanjib Banerjee and Aniruddha Roy observed at the outset.

The Court then made a sharp remark :

"It is more important to proceed against uniformed criminals before other criminal activity is checked".

The Court noted that there was no role mentioned about the petitioner in the case records running over 100 pages. The Court surmised that the Section 41A notice was served on the petitioner "appears to have been for extraneous considerations and, possibly, for the known police proclivity to extort money by needlessly entangling citizens in criminal cases".

"It is difficult to imagine that any wrongdoing had been attributed to the petitioner in the relevant statement and, in any event, it is difficult to accept that merely because the petitioner introduced a person to the maker of the statement who, introduced a third person to the maker of the statement and such third person along with the maker of the statement hatched a conspiracy, that the petitioner may be seen to be involved in such conspiracy", the HC observed.

After the State said that there was no material against the petitioner, the Court ordered that "he can no longer be disturbed in connection with the present case in any manner whatsoever".

The Court further directed :

"The Director General of Police will cause an appropriate inquiry to be instituted and, if necessary, disciplinary proceedings to be initiated against this investigating officer upon looking into his past conduct for any similar feats".

Advocates Soumyajit Das Mahapatra and Dhananjoy Banerjee appeared for the petitioner.

Recently, the Supreme Court had criticized the Kolkata police for issuing notice under Section 41A to a woman in Delhi for her tweets against the West Bengal government.

"There is a need to ensure that the power under section 41A is not used to intimidate, threaten and harass", a bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and Indira Banerjee while staying the notice in the case Rohini Biswas v State of West Bengal.

Click here to read/download the order