SC quashes complaint against Karnataka IPS officer Devaraj in illegal detention, assault case
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday quashed the complaint filed against Karnataka IPS officer D Devaraj, for allegedly assaulting a man during the investigation of a case while he was serving as SP, Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force (BMTF) in 2013.
Devaraj is presently serving as the SP, CID had earlier approached the apex court to stay the criminal proceedings against him in the case challenging the Karnataka High Court’s order that had declined to stay the proceedings. The apex court had then in April 2018 stayed the criminal proceedings against the officer.
The officer had then submitted that high court, as well as the trial court, ignored that so far public servants were concerned, the cognizance of any offence is barred by Section 197 unless sanction was obtained from the appropriate authority, if the offence, alleged to have been committed, was in discharge of the official duty.
In his petition, the police officer contended that Hussain, after his arrest in a criminal case, was produced before the magistrate court on February 28, 2013. He was specifically asked as to whether there was any ill-treatment and no complaint was made by him. The doctor, who examined him on March 4, 2013, found that no abnormalities and no injuries were found on him, he had said.
Hussain had filed a private complaint against Devaraja, retired ACP H Siddappa, inspector Puneeth Kumar R, sub-inspector V R Deepak, and police constable Hanumesh for the offences of criminal conspiracy, assault among others. The court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Bengaluru had on December 27, 2016, taking cognizance of the complaint against them. The high court had refused to allow their plea under Section 482 of the CrPC for quashing the complaint. It had directed them to appear and seek discharge from the trial court.
Hussain had alleged that he was 'illegally detained and booked for a theft he never committed.' Hussain from New BEL Road had claimed that he was harassed after the police barged into his house in February 2013, by breaking open the door. They beat, abused, and arrested him for a theft case registered in Halasuru police station, he had alleged.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court set aside the Karnataka High Court order and quashed the complaint. It observed “Significantly, the High Court has by its judgment and order observed “it is a well-recognized principle of law that sanction is a legal requirement that empowers the Court to take cognizance so 35 far as the public servant is concerned. If at all the sanction is an absolute requirement, if it takes cognizance it becomes illegal therefore an order to overcome any illegality the duty of the magistrate is that even at any subsequent stages if the sanction is raised the Magistrate has to consider”.
“In our considered opinion, the High Court clearly erred in law in refusing to exercise its jurisdiction under Section 482 of the Criminal Procedure Code to set aside the order of the Magistrate impugned taking cognizance of the complaint, after having held that it was a recognized principle of law that sanction was a legal requirement which empowers the Court to take Cognizance. The Court ought to have exercised its power to quash the complaint instead of remitting the appellant to an application under Section 245 of the Criminal Procedure Code to seek discharge” the Court observed as it quashed the complaint against Devaraj.
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FIDE Women's World Cup final: Humpy draws with Divya in first game
Batumi (Georgia), Jul 26 (PTI): Young Indian International Master Divya Deshmukh held her nerves to hold stalwart Koneru Humpy to a draw in game 1 of the FIDE Women's World Cup final, with both players having their share of opportunities to take the lead here on Saturday.
The draw with black means Humpy, the two-time World Rapid champion, holds a slight edge going in the second and final game under the classical chess rules in the two-game mini-match, and should the deadlock continue, games of shorter duration will be played to determine the winner.
Humpy employed the Queen's gambit accepted as black and it turned out to be a pretty fascinating game right out of the opening as Divya, 19, came up with a piece sacrifice early to deny the black king the right to castle.
Humpy was the first to err and, according to computers, Divya had things under control on the 14th move. However in her bid to recover the extra material, the Nagpur girl, who has secured a place in the Candidates tournament with her sterling performance here, missed a promising continuation.
What followed the exchange of all minor pieces and the ensuing queen and rook endgame gave enough counter play to both players. The game was eventually drawn after Humpy sacrificed her rook to force perpetual checks.
"The game saw an extremely sharp battle with the game ending in a draw in 41 moves. On move 7, Divya made her aggressive intentions clear by offering another pawn,
which looked like home preparation. Humpy made a practical decision of refraining from taking the pawn and a balanced position was reached by move 10 by white," said Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay, an Arjuna awardee and the first Indian to get a chess Grandmaster norm.
"However, instead of developing the undeveloped Knight, Humpy retreated the centralised Knight on move 10, giving huge positional advantage to Divya. Divya could have gained huge positional advantage on the 12th move by moving a rook. However, she chose to play for King side attack by sacrificing a piece instead.
"Humpy, too, erred at this stage and instead of moving the King to Queen side, moved it to the King side. Divya, on move 14, could have obtained a crushing attack by threatening a mate by developing her Queen. Instead she chose to exchange a pair of Bishops first, which enabled Humpy to defend her King by returning the piece," said Thipsay.
"Players thus reached a balanced Queen and two Rooks ending. Divya continued to play ambitiously and tried to attack Humpy’s King but the latter defended accurately and the game was drawn in 41 moves by perpetual check," he added.
In the play-off for the third place, Chinese players Zhongyi Tan, the former women's world champion and top seed Lei Tingjie also decided to split points out of a Queen’s gambit declined game.
The opening raised visions of a close contest between the two but having been knocked out of title race in the previous round, none of them wanted to take any huge risk. It was still a middle game when the players shook hands.
With the top two positions sealed for the Indians, the berth to the next Candidates is also assigned, while the player finishing third will also get an entry to the premier event scheduled for 2026.
Results: Divya Deshmukh (Ind) drew with Koneru Humpy (Ind); Zhongyi Tan (Chn) drew with Tingjie Lei (Chn).
