- (1.) This is a habeas corpus petition preferred on behalf of Smt. Priyanka Devi through her husband Kuldeep with the allegation that Priyanka and Kuldeep are lawfully married, but in consequence of an FIR lodged as Case Crime No. 0146 of 2016, under Sections 363, 366 IPC, the detenue-petitioner Priyanka Devi and her husband were compelled to challenge the said FIR before this Court by means of Criminal Misc. Writ Petition No. 4497/2017. The prayer in that petition was to quash the aforesaid FIR lodged by the petitioner's father, Sukhlal.
(2.) The said writ petition came to be disposed of by this Court by a judgment and order dated 19.03.2017 with directions that in case Priyanka appears or is produced before the learned C.J.M. and makes an application for her medical examination (for the purposes of determination of age) and to record her statement under Section 164 Cr.P.C, the Magistrate concerned shall fix a date for the purpose. On the date fixed, the first informant, and, the officer-in-charge of police station concerned shall be summoned by the Magistrate who will ensure that the petitioner is produced before the Chief Medical officer by the police for medical examination. It was further ordered that thereafter the C.J.M. would record the statement of the petitioner-detenue Priyanka under Section 164 Cr.P.C. It was also ordered that during the period no coercive measure would be taken against the petitioner. This Court further ordered that in case the petitioner-detenue is found to be major and does not support the FIR version (in her statement under Section 164 Cr.P.C.), the petitioners of the Criminal Misc. Writ Petition under reference shall not be arrested till submission of a police report under Section 173(2) Cr.P.C. It was also provided that in case the petitioner-detenue Priyanka is found to be a minor, or a major but supports the prosecution version it shall be open to the police to arrest the petitioners of the writ petition under reference. The order made by this Court on 23.03.2017 in the criminal misc. writ petition above referred ordered that the issue of custody of the petitioner-detenue shall also be decided by the Chief Judicial Magistrate concerned in accordance with law. It appears that it is the last part of the direction of this Court in Criminal Misc. Writ Petition No. 4497/2017, that is to say, the one requiring the Chief Judicial Magistrate to decide the issue of custody of the petitioner-detenue Priyanka that has led to the cause of action giving rise to the present habeas corpus petition.
(3.) Before the Magistrate, the statement of the petitioner-detenue Priyanka was recorded on 24.07.2017 in compliance with the directions of this Court, wherein she exculpated the accused Kuldeep in Case Crime No. 207/2017 regarding whom she said that she has not married him but that she knows him for a long time and that she wants to go with him. She further stated that she does not want to go with her parents. She leveled very serious allegations against her parents to the extent of saying that her father ravished her and her mother when informed by the petitioner-detenue about this abhorable act of her father, did not respond the expected way, and, instead threatened the detenue that in case she revealed the incident to anyone she would be done to death. The relevant part of the statement of the petitioner Priyanka recorded under Section 164 Cr.P.C. before the C.J.M. Budaun is being quoted (in Hindi Vernacular):;