The Bombay high court has held that if a crime is serious and cruel in nature, it would be considered an act against society at large and not merely against the victim.
The Bombay high court has held that if a crime is serious and cruel in nature, it would be considered an act against society at large and not merely against the victim.
The court made this observation while dismissing a petition seeking the quashing of a police case against 12 persons accused of attempted murder and causing grievous hurt to a Kurla resident.
The accused had allegedly poured boiling oil on the complainant after brutally assaulting his brother and him over a petty issue. The accused had subsequently settled their dispute with the complainant and approached the high court to quash the case against them, but a division bench of Justice Naresh Patil and Justice Prakash Naik rejected the petitioners’ contention, pointing out that the crime was serious in nature.
According to the petition, on July 5, 2016, complainant Zia-ul-Haq Nijamuddin Ansari received a phone call and was informed that unknown people were assaulting his elder brother Azharuddin at his shop as he had refused to sell spare parts at a lower rate. When Ansari reached the spot, he saw 12 persons beating his brother.
The petition further stated that people had tried to intervene but the accused kept on assaulting the man and Ansari himself. The accused assaulted Ansari with an iron ladle, which is used for frying vadas. As a result of violent outburst, Ansari’s fingers were injured.
At the same time, the accused poured hot oil from nearby vada pav stand all over Ansari’s body, which scorched his head, ear and hand. The accused then fled.
Ansari had an FIR registered at the Kurla police station and the police arrested all of the assailants and slapped relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code, including attempt to murder, on them.
The bench on Saturday noted while dismissing the petition, “It becomes the duty of the state to punish the crime doers even if there is a settlement between the perpetrators of the crime and the victim.”
