Court summons 8 IRS officers in defamation case

A Delhi court has summoned eight Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officers, accused of defaming a fellow officer.

A Delhi court has summoned eight Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officers, accused of defaming a fellow officer.

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Under section 197 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), no official sanction was required to prosecute these officers, Metropolitan Magistrate Navita Kumari said.

SK Srivastava, an IRS officer, accused the eight IRS officers of fabricating false cases to defame him as he had detected and reported the theft of public revenue of over R10,000 crores and other criminal activities.

The court observed that a prima facie case under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 167 (framing incorrect documents with intent to cause injury) and 500 (punishment for defamation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) is "disclosed" against the eight IRS officers.

"Though accused persons are public servants, sanction is not required in the present case as their acts of entering into criminal conspiracy, framing incorrect documents with intent to cause injury or imputing false allegations of sexual harassment to defame a person, could not be said to be committed in discharge of their official duty," the court said.