Tribune News Service
Saurabh Malik
Chandigarh, July 27
The implication of innocents in drug cases has been a matter of surmises since long. But an order passed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court has confirmed that an FIR was registered against a person “even before creating a basis for it”.
Making it clear that the petitioner deserved to be protected against his arrest in the matter, Justice Rajbir Sehrawat of the high court also granted anticipatory bail after ordering the payment of Rs 10,000 compensation to him.
The matter was brought to Justice Sehrawat’s notice after a petition was filed against the State of Punjab by Pushpinder Kumar through counsel Ajay Pal Singh Rehan for anticipatory bail in an FIR registered on May 9 under the provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act at Hoshiarpur city police station.
Appearing before the Justice Sehrawat’s Bench, Rehan submitted that the case against the petitioner was totally false, frivolous, concocted and registered at the behest of sub inspector Surinder Kumar with a mala fide intention. There was nothing either with the police or on record to substantiate anything against the petitioner.
Rehan added the petitioner was sought to be involved in the matter only because of the earlier cases fabricated in the “same very manner”. As such, the petitioner deserved to be granted protection from being arrested.
The State counsel, on the other hand, submitted that secret information was received to the effect that the petitioner was indulging in the business of narcotic drugs and substances. The police went to his house, but found it to be locked. “Therefore, the petitioner was involved in the offence.”
Justice Sehrawat asserted nothing was undisputedly recovered from the petitioner or from his alleged house. It could, as such, be safely construed that there was nothing to support the prosecution case, even as per the assertions of the police.
Directing the petitioner to join the investigation as and when called upon and abide by the bail conditions, Justice Sehrawat asserted: “Still further since the FIR has been got registered even before creating a basis for that, and due to the FIR the petitioner has been put to the harassment and expenses, the person who got the said FIR registered against the petitioner without any basis is directed to pay a compensation of Rs 10,000 to the petitioner.”
Before parting with the order, Justice Sehrawat set a four-week deadline for the purpose of paying the compensation before directing the forwarding of the order to Hoshiarpur Senior Superintendent of Police for necessary compliance.
#drug menace
