MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court reiterated that police officers should refrain from harassing people summoned for questioning.
Hearing a plea filed by Maheswari of Tenkasi alleging harassment at the hands of Puliyangudi police, Justice GK Ilanthiraiyan said the enquiry into congnizable and non-congnizable offence is the unfettered power of the investigation officer of the case so long as the power to inquire into the offences are legitimately exercised within the framework of Code of Criminal Procedure.
"Though the Code of Criminal Procedure empowers the magistrate to be a guardian in all the stages of the police investigation, there is no power envisaging to interfere with the actual or mode of the investigation. In this background, numerous petitions complaining of harassment are being filed before the court seeking for directions to restrain the police from harassing the persons named in a complaint. The court, though would not interfere in the investigation conducted by a police officer, would also not turn a blind eye to the instances of harassment by the police under the guise of the investigation," Justice Ilanthiraiyan said.
To prevent such incidents in the future, he issued some guidelines to the police saying while summoning any person named in a complaint or any witness to the incident, the police officer should summon such person through written summon order under Section 160 CrPC by specifying a particular date and time for appearing before them.
The police were also directed to serve the summons with CSR number, date and name of the complainant. The minutes of the enquiry should be recorded in general diary, station diary or daily diary of the police station, the judge added. He further told the police to adhere to the guidelines framed by Supreme Court for conducting preliminary inquiry or registering FIR. The judge later disposed of the petition.