NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Saturday dismissed a plea filed by Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Somesh Kumar Mishra, who sought the quashing of an FIR registered against him nearly a decade after the alleged crime, and at a location different from where the offence occurred.
A two-judge bench comprising Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Manmohan refused to quash the FIR and dismissed Mishra’s plea.
“We are dismissing your (Mishra’s) petition on the ground of delay, not on the ground of merit,” the court stated in its order.
Mishra, a former trainee DSP and currently posted in Gopalganj, Bihar, had filed a Special Leave Petition (SLP) before the top court challenging the Patna High Court’s 2022 decision, which had also refused to quash the FIR.
Following the apex court's decision, Mishra will now face trial in Bhagalpur. He has been chargesheeted by the investigating agency under Section 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
According to the prosecution, Mishra is accused of raping the victim at gunpoint between 2009 and 2012.
According to Mishra's lawyer, Shailendra Mani Tripathi, the case against him was initiated without the due process of law.
"The case has been initiated without the lodging of an FIR, which is contrary to legal requirements. And also there is no content prescribed in the FIR. The proceedings are not in accordance with the law. The FIR indicates that the distance from the place of occurrence to the police station is 2 kilometres. However, it has been alleged that the incident took place in Delhi," Tripathy alleged.
"Furthermore, there are no allegations pertaining to Bhagalpur in the entire report. The police, without any jurisdiction, conducted an arbitrary investigation and then filed a charge sheet in the Sessions Court, Bhagalpur," he said.
Mishra in his plea, stated that the police inquiry against him was conducted without following the due process of law. According to Mishra's plea, instead of approaching a police station and filing a complaint, the victim had sent an email to the Bihar police academy Rajgir in 2019, which was forwarded by the DIG to the additional DGP and Deputy Director of Bihar Police.
Following this, the additional DGP ordered the DIG to submit an inquiry report within a week. As part of the inquiry, the victim was asked by the police to come to the police academy in Rajgir. On January 25, 2020, the victim along with her husband, appeared before the sexual harassment committee at Bihar police academy and informed that the said incident had happened a decade ago.
The plea stated that following this, instead of lodging the FIR in Delhi, where the offense occurred, the police registered a case at Bihar's Bhagalpur on March 20, 2020. Mishra was arrested in November 2020, and was granted bail the next month.
Claiming that the allegations against him are baseless and fabricated with an intent to ruin his life and career, Mishra alleged that he had been targeted at a time when he was trying to settle in life with his dream job and thinking of starting a family life.
"The FIR is based on false and fabricated facts, as such, the same is liable to be quashed. There was a substantial delay (about a decade) in lodging the FIR and no plausible explanation regarding this has been given. Delay in lodging the FIR, itself shows that it is done after much thought and consultation, due to mala-fide intention," he alleged.