Will not turn a blind eye to harassment by police: Madras HC

CHENNAI: Passing a slew of guidelines for the police to follow at the time of investigation, the Madras High Court held that the court, while exercising its power under CrPC 482, normally would not interfere with the investigation conducted by a police officer, but it would not turn a blind eye to the instances of harassment by the police department.

Justice GK Ilanthiraiyan made this observation after noticing that numerous petitions complaining of harassment are being reported and filed before his court seeking directions to refrain the police officials from harassing the persons named in a complaint.

The judge also passed the guidelines to the police department as the petitioners named Prakash, Meenakshi Ammal, P Karpagavalli and Kumaresan sought direction to the district crime branch, Tiruppur not to harass them under the guise of investigation.

Justice Ilanthiraiyan pointed out that the term 'harassment' by itself has a very wide meaning and hence, what could be harassment to the petitioners may not be the same to the police officer.

“The police officer shall refrain himself or herself from harassing persons called upon for enquiry/investigation, ” the judge said in the guidelines.

The judge further directed the police to strictly adhere to guidelines stipulated for preliminary enquiry or registration of FIR by the Supreme Court in Lalita Kumari Vs Government of Uttar Pradesh and others.

The court also ruled that the minutes of the enquiry shall be recorded in the general diary/station diary/daily diary of the police station.

“While summoning any person named in the complaint or any witness to the incident complained of, the police officer shall summon such person through a written summon under Section 160 CrPC specifying a particular date and time for appearing before them for such an enquiry/investigation,” the judge noted.