The court of special judge (SC/ST Act) on Tuesday awarded six months’ imprisonment to a mason for lodging a false FIR under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act against house owners in order to frame them.
However, the mason, Maiku Lal, got bail from the court as his prison term was less than three years.
Additional district judge, Vivekanand Sharan Tripathi, who is special judge SC/ST court, noted that the SC/ST Act was misused to harass and intimidate innocent persons.
If both the persons had been sentenced to five years’ imprisonment under the SC/ST Act, they would have had to undergo a total of 10 years of imprisonment, the court said.
“The fundamental principle of Indian criminal law is that it is better to let 100 guilty persons go free than to convict one innocent person. When someone files a false FIR against another person, it strikes at the very core of this principle, which is unacceptable,” the court observed.
The court’s decision will serve as a deterrent to others who might consider misusing the SC/ST Act for personal gain or vendetta, said Arvind Mishra, government advocate, who represented the state government in court.
{{/usCountry}}The court’s decision will serve as a deterrent to others who might consider misusing the SC/ST Act for personal gain or vendetta, said Arvind Mishra, government advocate, who represented the state government in court.
{{/usCountry}}Sumit Kalra and Amit Kalra of Shitlapuram, under Para police station, had engaged Maiku Lal for constructing their house in 2016.
On May 9, 2017, Maiku Lal lodged an FIR at the Alamnagar police station, Para, accusing Sumit Kalra and Amit Kalra of not paying his dues and abusing him with caste-based slurs.
In the FIR, Maiku Lal claimed the incident took place on March 10, 2017. He alleged that the house owners had paid only ₹3,05,100 and ₹1,77,603 was still pending which they had refused to pay.
The probe by the then circle officer, Alambagh, Meenakshi revealed that the mason was not present at the Kalras’ residence on March 10, 2017, the day on which Maiku Lal claimed the incident took place.
The CO submitted the final report in court on June 4, 2017, stating that Maiku Lal had lodged the fake FIR to exert undue pressure on the house owners to extract more money from them.
On the basis of Maiku Lal’s call detail records, the investigating officer apprised the court that he was not present at the residence of Sumit and Amit Kalra on March 10, 2017.
She also apprised the court that the Kalras’ neighbours did not corroborate the incident.