The Kalaburagi bench of Karnataka High Court has directed a Station House Officer (SHO) of Bazaar Police Station to clean the road outside the police station for one week as a community service after failing his duty to register an FIR on time.
A division bench of Justices S Sunil Dutt Yadav and P Krishna Bhat observed, “The entire development in the case, after the petitioner’s son went missing, discloses to us a very disturbing facet of the functioning of the police stations in this area of the State.”
The order further stated, “The problem, primarily, is one of the police officers not complying with the procedure prescribed under the Code of Criminal Procedure, which places a high premium on the guarantee of liberty of the individuals.”
The SHO gave a written undertaking stating, “I am ready to comply with the direction issued by the court. I render my unconditional apology for not registering the FIR and assure the court that I will not repeat this in future.”
The division bench accepted the undertaking and directed the Superintendent of Police of Kalaburagi to conduct an orientation course or workshop for all police officers within the district on “Zero FIR” as per the Supreme Court guidelines.
The division bench gave the order while hearing a habeas corpus petition filed by Tarabai, a 55-year-old resident of Minajagi Tanda in Kalaburagi. The petitioner had alleged that the SHO didn’t comply with the procedure under CrPC when she approached him to register an FIR about her missing son. Her son was abducted. But the cop ignored the mandate of law and neither made an entry in the police station house diary nor had he registered an FIR.
