NEW DELHI: Warning the director general of UP Police to rein in his forces from routinely converting civil disputes into criminal cases to harass civilians, Supreme Court on Thursday said if the practice did not cease, it would pass orders that the DGP would “remember his whole life”.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan took note of a dozen criminal cases lodged against a person who was seeking anticipatory bail claiming that all these cases related to various land disputes and that police were harassing him and his family members. Senior advocate Rana Mukherjee, appearing for the UP govt, told the bench that the accused on the one hand had not joined the investigations, while on the other hand was seeking protection from arrest.
The bench said though SC has protected him from arrest, he seemed to be apprehensive that the moment he appeared before police, he would be arrested in a fresh case lodged against him.
“UP Police are entering into a dangerous area. You register criminal cases in purely civil disputes. Tell your DGP that if this practice does not stop immediately, we will pass such drastic orders, he will remember for his whole life,” the bench said, expressing displeasure. Mukherjee said if police did not heed the court, then he would return the case to the govt. The bench said the remarks were aimed at police’s conduct and told Mukherjee that he should use his good offices to drive home SC’s message.
The bench asked UP Police to send the summons to the accused on his mobile phone, specifying the date, time and place where he should appear before the investigating officer. “The petitioner shall not be taken into custody in the cases registered against him or in any fresh case without prior permission of SC,” it said.