MADURAI: Observing that police cannot register FIR under Section 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of the Indian Penal Code, the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court recently discharged former Sathankulam sub-inspector Raghu Ganesh, one of the accused in Thoothukudi Jeyaraj-Beniks custodial death case, from charges filed under the section.
Justice Sathi Kumar Sukumara Kurup passed the order while hearing one of the revision petitions filed by Ganesh challenging the dismissal of his discharge petition by the Additional Sessions Court I of Madurai in March.
“A person is booked under Section 188 when he or she disobeys an order promulgated by a public servant, such as the pandemic curfew. Police cannot register an FIR for an offence under the above section, without a private complaint being filed by the public servant, whose order has been violated,” Ganesh’s counsel contended and also cited certain Madras High Court judgments to make his point.
Justice Kurup accepted the said contention, but observed that if such an FIR is filed along with other IPC sections, then the FIR cannot be quashed. He partly allowed Ganesh’s petition by discharging him only from the charges filed under the above section.
Another revision petition had been filed by the former sub-inspector alleging that a document containing statements recorded by the CB-CID from 45 witnesses in the case, prior to its transfer to the CBI, was not furnished to him. Dismissing the petition, Justice Kurup observed that the said document cannot be furnished to Ganesh since CBI has not relied upon CB-CID’s document to prove the charges against him.