A local court here has ordered the registration of an First Information Report (FIR) against the Station House Officer of Bhondsi Police Station and a Sub-Inspector for “interfering in the civil dispute” and disobeying the directions of law as contained in Section 155(2) of Criminal Procedure Code.
The court, hearing a bail application, observed that “it is not the job of (the) police to meddle with civil disputes and police officials cannot be given (the) licence to meddle with the civil disputes”.
Jasbir Singh, Additional Sessions Judge, Gurugram, in his order earlier this month, also directed that “to serve the ends of justice” the applicants would be given at least 10 days’ notice prior to their arrest in case any FIR was registered on the basis of the complaint.
The matter pertained to a complaint to the police in connection with a dispute between Raj Dhankar and Rajbir, the applicant, over the sale of a plot measuring around 1,500 sq yards in Bhondsi. As per the complaint to the police, Raj bought the plot from Rajbir through an agreement to sell on February 27, 2018, and paid him ₹17.5 lakh through cheque and ₹3 lakh through RTGS. But the sale deed could not be executed, and Raj filed a civil suit at Sohna court seeking possession.
The complainant twice approached the police for probe on August 2 and 4 last year, but the police dropped proceedings saying that the matter was civil in nature and the civil suit was pending in the Sohna court.
However, the complainant again approached the police for the third time this year and a notice was served to the applicant on August 25 asking him to appear before the police and furnish certain information.
‘No power to decide’
The court, in its order, observed that it was a settled proposition of law that police had got no power to decide about the possession of a party on any piece of land, but the act of police in the present case, prima facie, revealed that “the enquiry officer is bent upon to give his findings regarding possession over the suit property”.
