Delhi Court Convicts CBI Officials For Assault, Trespass During IRS Officer's Arrest In 2000; Holds Raid Malafide

A Delhi Court today convicted two Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials for offences of assault, criminal trespass and mischief during the arrest of an Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer in 2000, holding that the search and arrest operation was carried out with “malafide intent” and in abuse of official powers. Judicial Magistrate First Class Shashank Nandan Bhatt of Tis Hazari Courts convicted Inspector V.K. Pandey and DSP Ramneesh under Sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 427 (mischief) and 448 (criminal trespass) read with Section 34 of IPC. The case arose from a complaint filed by Ashok Kumar Aggarwal, a 1985-batch IRS officer, who alleged that CBI officials forcibly entered his Paschim Vihar residence in the early hours of October 19, 2000, assaulted him, and carried out an illegal arrest. Aggarwal claimed the operation was a retaliatory measure linked to his disputes with senior officials and aimed at frustrating a Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) order directing review of his suspension. The accused argued that their actions were part of official duties and protected under Section 197 of CrPC. However, the Court rejected the said contention, holding that the acts bore no reasonable nexus with lawful discharge of duty. “….since the entire search and arrest proceedings dated 19.10.2000 were conducted by the accused persons in a malafide manner by exceeding the powers vested upon them by law, this court is of the view that the actions of the accused persons do not fall within the scope of 'discharge of official duty' and thus, they cannot be granted the benefit of protection prescribed by Section 197 Cr.P.C read with Section 140 Delhi Police Act,” the Court said. The judge observed that the officials forcibly entered the complainant's house by breaking open the door without sufficient justification. In the case, the main reason for breaking open the door of the house, as claimed by the accused persons, was that the complainant and his brother were seen carrying certain files in the drawing room from the windows of the ground floor by the member of the arresting team.On this, the Court said that none of the files were seized by the IO, accused no 1,which left out the scope of corroboration of the version narrated by the accused persons. “Accordingly, this court is of the view that the actions of the accused persons in breaking open the main door of the house of the complainant on 19.10.2000, during the search and arrest proceedings, without any justified reason, constitutes commission of mischief and the act of consequently entering upon the property of the complainant, with the intention of malafidely exercising their official powers to settle professional scores, falls within the definition of criminal trespass,” the Court said. It added that the complainant had suffered an injury on his right forearm at the time of search and arrest proceedings because of being dragged and manhandled by the accused persons. The judge said that the accused were not able to establish any justifiable grounds for inflicting the said injury on the body of the complainant.Holding that the accused acted with a common intention and misused their authority, the court concluded that the prosecution had proved the case beyond reasonable doubt.

Delhi Court Convicts CBI Officials For Assault, Trespass During IRS Officer's Arrest In 2000; Holds Raid Malafide

Nupur Thapliyal

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