'Horrific Incident, Complete Misuse Of Power': P&H High Court Dismisses Pre-Arrest Bail Plea Of Cop Accused Of Assaulting Colonel

The Punjab & Haryana High Court rejected the pre-arrest bail plea of a Punjab Police Personnel allegedly involved in the brutally assaulting an Army Officer and his son.

Colonel Pushpinder Singh Bath, currently posted at the Army headquarters in New Delhi, alleged that on the night of March 13, four Inspector-rank officers of Punjab Police and their armed subordinates attacked him and his son for improper parking of their vehicle.

Justice Anoop Chitkara said, "it is horrific, gut wrenching incident showcases the complete misuse of police power by these officers. Not taking a serious note of such a deplorable and inexcusable act by some high level police officials, some being at Inspector level, would not only put the safety and dignity of our nation and the entire society at peril but would also be a heavy blow to the high standards of morals, values and ethics, the majority of the brave hearts in these honorable defence and police forces stand for and represent."

The Court took note of the video clip of the which "corroborates the complainant's version" and said that, "one thing is also explicitly clear from the video that not even a single police officer came to break up the fight or to ask their colleagues to stop the beatings or not to take the law into their own hands, calling it enough. In the video, none of the accused is seen stopping those involved at the time of the beating."

It further pointed that, a coordinate bench was not satisfied with the fairness of the investigation and transferred it to the UT Police from Punjab Police and the accused are yet to be interrogated and the weapons used in the offence have not been recovered so far.

"The allegations of the complainant and his son are duly corroborated by the medical evidence noted by the Rajendra Hospital, a government hospital, which mentioned the weapons as blunt. Both Colonel Pushpinder Singh Bath and his son Angad Singh, in addition to other injuries, had also received one grievous injury each," the Court added.

Rejecting the petitioner's plea for "provocation", the Court said, "In the present case, the nature of the injuries does not bring the offence within the exceptions of §§ 118(2) of BNS or 122 of BNS. Thus, what is required to be gathered is intention and knowledge. The petitioner's claim of being provoked is contradicted by their argument that they were in plain clothes."

The Court said that, even if it is hypothetically assumed that the victims had wrongfully parked their car on the roadside, still the job of a law enforcement officer is to issue a challan (Ticket) to that motor vehicle which has violated any such law. It is not the job of any trained law enforcer, skilled in the efficient use of force continuum to mete out unmerciful, furious beatings to a common man on the drop of the hat and disrespect civilians, wielding their authority to disregard and disrupt law and order themselves.

Unfortunate Case Of Gross Misuse Of Emergency Power

The Court opined that, "It appears that this was an unfortunate case of gross misuse of emergency powers under the Police Act. The callous and violent way in which these police officers are seen to be beating those two people visibly, clearly demonstrates an inhumane, aggressive and arrogant attitude of a cruel mindset which is uncharacteristic of what our respectable and valiant police force actually represents."

This vile, uncivilized, pitiless and brutal way is not the manner in which a police force ought to behave with its people, anywhere, and especially, in a democratic country like ours, it added.

Prime Duty Of Police Is Not To Instill Fear In Minds Of Public

The prime duty of the police is not to instill fear in the minds of public using unwarranted force but to secure observance of law and order and to bring that goal to fruition, a pre-requisite is adherence to and respect for legal framework itself, said the High Court.

It further added that, "it is common knowledge that the majority of the people, especially the poor, downtrodden, and illiterate, have been deeply conditioned to be afraid of the police, harboring a fear of them in the hearts of hearts."

Case Highlights High Headedness Of Police Team

While noting that the complainant's case is that, despite informing the police officers of his identity as a Colonel in the Indian Army and showing his identity card, the police officers did not stop with their thrashing,  the bench said that it further highlights the high headedness, cruelty, arrogance and lack of any empathy of the police team.

"If the police officers display such brutality, high handedness and disrespect towards the members who belong to our esteemed defense services, such a reprehensible conduct would certainly be against the whole Nation and may even imply that such officers would be happy to serve any ruler, which defies the entire purpose for which a democracy would give them so much power in the first place," it added.

 Episode More Worrisome Due To Inaction In Lodging FIR

The Court found the entire episode even more worrisome due to the non action of the senior officers to make sure that an FIR was registered without delay, to bring perpetrators to justice.

"A fundamental aspect which must be thoroughly investigated by a senior level police officer and certainly not less than of the Senior Superintendent of Police is the manner in which FIR No.65 was registered under 194(2) BNS in Police Station Patiala based on the complaint of Dhaba owner and non- registration of FIR 69 earlier, despite involving a grievous injury and a complaint about causing assault," it added.

Stating that perusal of bail plea and the documents on record "points towards the petitioner's involvement", the Court dismissed the plea.

Mr. Vinod Ghai, Senior Advocate with Mr. GPS Ghuman, Advocate,

Mr. G.S. Ghuman, Advocate, Mr. Arnav Ghai, Advocate and

Mr. R.S. Bagga, Advocate for the petitioner.

Mr. Manish Bansal, P.P., U.T., Chandigarh with Mr. Alankrit Bhardwaj, Addl. P.P. and

Ms. Navreet Kaur Barnala, AAG, Punjab.

Mr. P.S. Ahluwalia, Advocate,

Mr. Veer Vikram Singh Mann, Advocate and Mr. Harjot Waraich, Advocate for the complainant.

Title: Ronnie Singh Salh v. State of Punjab

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