The 9 point checklist to be drawn as per section 41 Cr.P.C. is nothing new, it only puts in black and white what the arresting officer needed to satisfy without clarifying to the judicial officer and it only puts the trial courts on alert which purpose the Apex Court could have achieved by just circulating an internal memo. It does not stop the Police from effecting illegal arrests. Arrest in itself is a serious violation of personal liberty. When it is illegal, it adds insult to injury. The disease of illegal arrests will never go away by striking the symptom and leaving the root cause untouched. Police make illegal arrests [the effect] because 498A is non-bailable [the cause]. By keeping s.498A IPC non-bailable; we are only giving wide, unfettered and very often maliciously exercised discretion in the hands of police officers, who are not even educated to know that it is only cruelty for meeting unlawful demands and not any and every allegation of physical/ mental abuse that attracts s.498A IPC. MANY police officers side with the complainant to milk the opportunity of getting a cut from the settlement money paid by accused husband to close the criminal proceedings. MANY police officers are notorious for producing arrested accused only after regular court hours to ensure he is remanded to custody. MANY police officers forge and manipulate official records such as arrest memo and notice bail= pre-arrest notices and police diary entries. MANY police officers do not inform the nearest friend/family/relative of accused of his whereabouts. MANY Police officers grant sanction to arrest without verifying the need or justification of arresting the accused. MANY police officers seek permission to arrest for custodial interrogation of the accused, however, no such thing happens. We know that the anticipatory bail industry is a lucrative market for lawyers and police alike. MANY Complainants resort to 498A IPC to teach the accused a lesson, to extort money, to get easier divorces, to avenge for their insult at the hands of accused, to hide their medical/physical deformity/illness making them unfit for married life, to ensure knowledge of their past affairs does not hurt them, to keep their extra-marital relations hidden or simply when they have been married forcibly or against their wish. All said and done, a failed marriage is not a crime. Indian Penal Code works on the judicial premise that an accused is innocent until proven guilty. However, s.498A IPC is made an exception, however, it is self-defeating. If we want to walk the talk and REALLY stop illegal arrests, we need to make the section bailable. Only if advisories could do the trick, 3 MHA Advisories from the Government of India and number of directions from Supreme Court, various High Courts, from NHRC, from State Police to it’s ranks would have stopped illegal, capricious, whimsical arrests from the time Joginder Kumar vs State of UP, D.K. Basu vs. State of WB, Adri Dharan Das vs. State of WB, Chander Bhan vs. State of NCT of Delhi, Meera Nireshwalia vs. State of TN have been in vogue. But the reality is ugly and frightful. What we need is for police to register FIRs’ responsibly, scrupulously, in accordance with law and without fear and favour. Only when FIR is genuine and makes ingredients of offence alleged will it have higher chance of conviction. Lets make 498A what it should be for- to reduce dowry crimes and rid it of what it has become- a money-making business and an extortion industry.
Posted on: Sun, 26 Oct 2014 22:00:47 +0000
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