Asking CBI officers to show IDs is not assault; HC closes case against 3 lawyers
The Bombay High Court discharged three lawyers accused of assaulting CBI officers, stating asking for ID isn’t a crime, and awarded them ₹15,000 each.
MUMBAI: Asking officers from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to disclose their identity cards cannot be considered an act of assault or criminal force, the Bombay High Court (HC) observed on Thursday while discharging three lawyers from a criminal case.
The three lawyers, including one who was an intern at the time, had been accused of assault, acting with criminal force and obstructing a public servant after they asked CBI officers to show their ID during a 2007 search at a client’s office.
“Asking the CBI officers to disclose their identity cards cannot be considered as an act of assault or criminal force ... It is clear and an undoubtable case of wounded ego and affront caused to the CBI Officer when he was asked to show his identity card and identify himself which led to subsequent events and complaint against Applicants under Section 353 IPC,” the court found in its November 21 verdict.
A single judge, Justice Milind Jadhav dismissed the charges, describing them as stemming from the “wounded ego” of a CBI officer who took offence at being asked to show his ID. The court noted the lack of evidence to support claims of assault or obstruction. Jadhav also directed the state to pay ₹15,000 each to the three lawyers for the 17-year-long legal battle they endured in the matter, after noting that the trial had not even commenced despite a chargesheet being filed.
“The costs are awarded in order to send a clear message to the Law Enforcement Agencies to ensure that legal provisions are not misused by them so as to cause irreparable hardship and sufferance to the common man and citizens of this country and that the Rule of law prevails,” the court added.
The case dates to November 2007, when CBI officers conducted a search at the office of a company linked to the client of one of the lawyers, Gobindram Talreja. During the search, tensions arose when two of Talreja’s colleagues, Haresh Sobhraj Motwani and Prateek Naushad Sanghvi (an intern at the time), sought to see the identity cards of the officers. The CBI subsequently accused the lawyers of assault, criminal force, and obstructing a public servant under Section 353 of the Indian Penal Code.
“There is nothing on record, even in the FIR or statements of the CBI officers, to show that the lawyers used assault, criminal force, or obstructed the search that had been ongoing for 10 hours,” the court observed.
The lawyers were arrested on the day of the incident but released on bail the following day. Despite a chargesheet being filed in 2008, the trial never commenced.
Justice Jadhav noted, “This court can only imagine the mental anguish and disgrace suffered by a young law student at the very threshold of his career, enduring an arrest for actions he could not fully comprehend.” He concluded, “This decision sends a clear message to law enforcement agencies that legal provisions must not be misused to cause hardship to citizens and that the rule of law must prevail.”