BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court declined to quash an FIR registered against the residents of Shilpitha Splendour Annex Apartment in Mahadevapura on charges of preventing officials of Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) from clearing encroachment on a rajakaluve and fencing the area recovered from t h e encroachment.
“Photographs and video clippings reveal that the petitioners tried to prevent BBMP officials. There is prima facie material to show that there is a cognisable offence. Therefore, the petition is devoid of merits and is liable to be dismissed.
The police are at liberty to proceed with the investigation and file a chargesheet”, said Justice K Natarajan, while dismissing the petition filed by 22 residents of the apartment. BBMP Executive Engineer Malathi had lodged a complaint with Mahadevapura police against the petitioners for allegedly gathering illegally and preventing them from discharging their duty when she, along with surveyors and police personnel in March 2020 was executing the order of the high court which directed them to survey the encroachment of rajakaluve and remove the same in Mahadevapura.
The petitioners contended that the BBMP officials already removed the encroachment and surveyed the land and there is nothing more to survey. They are the residents of the apartment and therefore, they have not committed any offence, they claimed.
However, the court said that the petitioners, being the owners of the apartment must be in the apartment, but they joined hands to prevent public authority from discharging their duty, which attracts Section 149 of the IPC with the common object and unlawful assembly under Section 143 of IPC for committing an offence on the public servant. There is a clear case of attracting Section 353 of IPC against the petitioners for having obstructed the complainant along with other officers, the court observed.