A.S.NEHRA,J - (1.) PETITIONERS have filed this petition under Section 482, Criminal Procedure Code (hereinafter called the 'Code') for quashing criminal complaint dated February 19, 1985, filed by Smt. Surinder Kaur alias Gurdeep Kaur, respondent No. 2, under Sections 302, 342 and 364 read with Sections 120-B and 149 of the Indian Penal Code (hereinafter called the 'Penal Code') summoning order dated January 25, 1986 passed by Judicial Magistrate Ist Class, Gurdaspur, order of the Additional Sessions Judge, Chandigarh, dated February 2, 1994, dismissing the application filed by the petitioners for dropping the proceedings in the complaint case against them and order dated February 3, 1994, passed by the Additional Sessions Judge, Chandigarh, by which charges under Sections 364 read with Sections 149 and 302 read with Section 149 of the Penal Code have been framed against them.
(2.) BRIEFLY stated, the facts of the case are as under : Smt. Surinder Kaur alias Gurdeep Kaur filed a complaint under Sections 302, 342 and 364 read with Sections 120-B of 149 of the Penal Code against the petitioners and five others on February 19, 1985. The petitioners were ordered to be summoned to stand trial under Section 302 read with Sections 149/364 of the Penal Code. Petitioner filed an application for dropping the proceedings against them stating that since the act complained of by respondent No. 2 was done by them in the discharge of their official duties being members of the Police or the Para-Military Force, they could not be prosecuted without obtaining the prior sanction of the Government as envisaged by Section 197 of the Code. The application filed by the petitioners was opposed by respondent No. 2 and in her reply she had stated that since the act of criminality i.e. killing of her husband, attributed to the petitioners had absolutely no connection with the performance of their official duties, the protection of Section 197 of the Code was not available to them and that the request made by them could not, therefore, be acceded to. For the correct appreciation of the matter, as also for right adjudication thereof it is necessary to refer to the facts of the case as mentioned in the complaint and the same, briefly stated, are as under :- "On 2.10.84, Suba Singh deceased, who was husband of the complainant, had gone to a room wherein Muktiar Singh Constable (now an accused) was living and saw one Jaspal Singh son of Joginder Singh being beaten and tortured thereby some police officials, including the accused persons. He (Suba Singh) then came back to his house in his village Talwandi, but since the accused persons suspected that he could disclose whatever he had seen them doing to Jaspal Singh to some other persons and even to their superiors, he was called back from his house through Muktiar Singh Constable on the same day and was detained by them along with said Jaspal Singh. When Suba Singh did not come back home for quite some time, his wife, i.e. the complainant, set out to find out his whereabouts and when they were going towards the room of the said Muktiar Singh Constable and were at the turning of the street at G.T. Road, Dina Nagar, they saw a police jeep standing there and Suba Singh and Jaspal Singh in hand-cuffs and Jaimal Singh Sub Inspector, Muktiar Singh Constable, Kuldip Singh, Driver of the jeep, and two other police men were putting forcibly Suba Singh and Jaspal Singh in the jeep. At that time, Suba Singh was shouting that he would not divulge, what he had seen, to anybody and that he should be set free. Jaimal Singh accused was, however, heard saying to him, Toon Sadiyan Jaran Wich Kal Noon Baithenga.' Then Jaimal Singh and the other accused persons drove them away towards Pathankot side. Thereafter on 3.10.84, the complainant and some other members of her family, including her son, went to the Police Station Sadar, Pathankot, with a view to meet Mukhtiar Singh and to find out as to where Suba Singh was and at about 5.00 p.m. when they were waiting to meet the Commandant of the Border Security Force at Gurdaspur, the same police Jeep was also seen standing near the Officers' Mess along with the accused persons sitting therein. They, i.e. Suba Singh and Jaspal Singh, were shifted to a Matador which was taken towards the border side and sometime later they came to know that Suba Singh had been killed in a fake encounter and this was done after he had been tortured and his bones broken with a view to concealing their misdeeds."
(3.) I have heard the learned counsel for both the parties and have come to the conclusion that the request of the petitioners for dropping the proceedings in the complaint case has been rightly declined by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Chandigarh.;