Bombay HC drops case against 21 BJP workers, says cops violated law

The Bombay High Court recently quashed a first information report against 21 Bharatiya Janata Party workers after holding that the police had prosecuted them without following the procedures established under the law.

The court observed that the Azad Maidan police had made a case out of a non-cognisable offence without seeking the permission of a magistrate which is mandatory under the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).

Scores of members of the Youth Wing of BJP had assembled outside Mumbai University's Fort campus on November 18, 2011 to protest against the Wiki Conference India. The agitators alleged that Wikipedia had wrongly depicted the map of India – without J&K and Arunachal Pradesh.

No sooner the BJP workers began to raise slogans, the police bundled 21 of them, took them to the Azad Maidan police station and registered a case. Since it was a bailable offence, the men were let off after some time.

Advocates Ayaz Khan and Zehra Charania, who represented the BJP workers, said Section 155(2) of the CrPC makes it compulsory for the police to first approach a magistrate and seek permission to register a case, investigate, or arrest a person in a non-cognisable offence.

"However, in my clients case, the police on their own went ahead with the probe and even filed a charge sheet. The prosecution was bad in law, thus we pleaded the court to quash the FIR," said Ayaz Khan, adding that the court accepted their contention and ruled in their favour.