Brijendra Singh vs State Of Madhya Pradesh And Others

Milind Ramesh Phadke, J

The present petition under Section 482 of Cr.P.C. has been preferred by the applicant seeking relief with regard to directions to the respondents/Police Authorities to conduct fair and impartial investigation in crime No.0/2023 registered at Police Station Pichhore District Gwalior.

Learned counsel for the petitioner has vehemently submitted that on 15.04.2023 daughter of the petitioner (the prosecutrix) was allured by one Dharmendra Sharma S/o Shri Deendayal Sharma and took her to Bhopal where he forcibly married her and thereafter started living at Gwalior in Pragti Vihar Colony. It was further submitted that Dharmendra Sharma and his friends, namely, Hemant Tiwari and Bhura Tiwari had sexually abused his daughter. In that regard, the daughter of the petitioner had made a complaint on 24.09.2023 at Police Station Pichhore. On the basis of the said complaint, Police Station Pichhore had registered a crime bearing No. 0/2023 under Section 377, 376-D, 376(2)(n), 342, 323, 506 of IPC r/w Section 3(1)(W-II), 3(2)(V), 3(2)(v-a) of SC/ST Act and thereafter Police Station Pichhore forwarded the said complaint to Police Station Gole Ka Mandir. Thereafter, on 30th September, 2023 when wife of the present petitioner and his daughter (the prosecutrix) had gone to visit temple that at about 2 pm, the daughter of the petitioner went missing and in that regard, petitioner had lodged a missing person report bearing No. 13/2023 with Police Station Mow. Prior to that, petitioner had also moved a compliant before Superintendent of Police, Gwalior seeking arrest of the accused persons who have been committed offence with his daughter stating that the accused persons are threatening the petitioner and his family members to enter into a compromise but no heed was given to the said complaint and in that context only, he apprehends that his daughter has been abducted and the petitioner further apprehends that some untoward incident may happen with his daughter. Therefore, petitioner by filing this petition had sought directions for the respondents/Police Authorities to conduct fair and impartial investigation with regard to the crime which has been registered at the behest of the daughter of the petitioner.

Per contra, learned counsel appearing for respondent/State submits that relief with regard to the direction to be issued to the respondents/Police Authorities for conducting fair and impartial investigation in the crime registered against some accused persons, the remedy available to the petitioner is before the competent court of criminal jurisdiction under the provisions contained under Section 156 (3) of Cr.P.C. To bolster his submissions, learned counsel for the respondent/State has placed reliance on the judgment of Hon'ble Apex Court rendered in Aleque Padamsee & ors. Vs. Union of India & ors. (2007) 6 SCC 171, Sakiri Vasu Vs. State of U.P. (2008) 2 SCC 409 and judgment of division Bench of this Court in the case of Shweta Bhadoria Vs. State of M.P. (2017) 1 M.P.L.J. (Cri.) 338.

3.1 Learned counsel for the respondent/State further submits that Hon'ble Apex Court has categorically held that wherever a person complains of non-registration of FIR or improper investigation by the police officials, the person first has to approach under Section 154 (3) of Cr.P.C. before concerned Superintendent of Police and in case the grievance is not redressed, then the person has a remedy to approach before the competent court of criminal jurisdiction invoking the provision under Section 156 (3) of Cr.P.C. Hence, present petition being devoid of any substance deserves to be dismissed.

After hearing learned counsel for the rival parties and perusing the record as well as going through the judgments which have been relied upon by the learned Public Prosecutor, this Court is of the considered view that the remedy is available to the petitioner for the relief which has been claimed in this petition before the competent court of criminal jurisdiction under Section 156 (3) of Cr.P.C.

In view of above, this petition stands disposed of with a liberty to the petitioner to approach the competent Judicial Magistrate by filing an appropriate application for redressal of his grievances.