Brothers roaming without mask in lockdown beat up policeman, HC refuses to quash FIR

The Delhi High Court has refused to quash an FIR against two men accused of assaulting a policeman on being stopped for loitering without masks during the lockdown, saying the breach of restrictions to contain the coronavirus pandemic might result in loss of millions of lives.

The court said the charges against the two men are unquestionably serious and their acts, if found true, are inherently inimical to public and societal interest as a whole.

Breach of the lockdown restrictions, imposed by the Government, which, if permitted unchecked, may result in loss of lives of millions, and cannot be tolerated for an instance, Justice C Hari Shankar said, conducting the hearing through video conferencing.

While the two brothers alleged atrocities by the police, the FIR showed that they were roaming around without face masks and had beaten up the official on the evening of April 20.

When the police official stopped one of the brothers and queried him on the reason for roaming outside, he retorted that the policeman had no right to stop him from walking in the area without a mask.

On the official's attempt to control the man, he kicked him and his brother joined in kicking and hitting the policeman.

An FIR was lodged against them for the alleged offences of disobedience of the order duly promulgated by a public servant, negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life, obstructing and assaulting public servant in discharging duty and criminal intimidation under the IPC.

However, the two men claimed in their plea that on the evening of April 20, they were forcibly taken from their residence to a police booth in Basai Darapur in West Delhi by the police officials and were beaten up and illegally detained. They said a false case was later on registered against them.

The court, while dismissing the plea to quash criminal proceedings against the two brothers, also noted that the allegations levelled against them in the FIR are supported by the medical check up of the complainant police official who was allegedly beaten up by them.

The court after perusing the material on record, said no case for quashing of the FIR at the nascent stage is made out.

Acts, often innocuous, may have catastrophic consequences and courts, in cases such as these, cannot permit themselves to be carried away by the physical nature of the act as committed, unmindful of the results that would ensue, were such acts to be tolerated.

"While this sole factor may, even by itself, be sufficient to have merited dismissal of this petition, the status report further states that the allegations in the FIR are supported by the MLC of the complainant, it said.