Don’t use police to settle personal scores, says HC

Ahmedabad: Police cannot be allowed to be used as puppets to settle personal scores of any complainant, the Gujarat high court observed while rejecting a plea filed by a person demanding registration of an FIR against his relatives.
Justice Akil Kureshi refused to interfere in the case because the complainant had earlier reached a compromise with the accused and had got a similar complaint quashed.


One Viren Patel from Kheda had lodged an FIR against his cousins, Kirit Patel, Bhadresh Patel and Hardik Patel. But before the police could begin investigation in the case, both the parties reached a compromise. Claiming that the issue was amicably solved, the accused filed a quashing petition last year in the high court, which cancelled the FIR with the observation that when a compromise had already taken place, there was no need for further probe.
However, the complainant, Viren, has filed a fresh petition in the high court after few months urging the court to order registration of an FIR once again against his relatives. He alleged that the accused were not following conditions of the compromise reached earlier. The court turned down the application but allowed him to take action as per the law.
Accordingly, Viren approached a magisterial court in Kheda, which ordered a court inquiry under Section 202 of CrPC. Viren was not satisfied with this order and wanted a full-fledged police investigation under Section 156 of CrPC.
While refusing to interfere in the case, Justice Kureshi observed, “I cannot allow the police to be used as a puppet of the complainant, who shifts his stand from time to time. Criminal machinery is meant for maintaining law and order, for punishing the guilty and protecting the innocent, and not for extracting personal vengeance or for settling private scores.”