Take action against police officer: Bench to DIG

Madurai, Oct 17: A Division bench of

has directed the DIG Of

, Tirunelveli, to take action against a police officer for taking advantage of the innocence of a poor complainant and dealing with the case carelessly.

Justices K Suguna and R Mala, dealing with a Habeas corpus petition by the mother of a 25-year-old woman who was reported missing, said it is a classic case where official respondents were misusing their power and registering a case under an irrelevant section.

By doing so, there was every possibility for police to close the case as 'mistake of fact', the bench said. The Petitioner, Nagammal, filed the HCP seeking a direction to the police to produce the detenu, her daughter and her grandson, missing since Nov 20, 2010. Though a case was registered on a complaint, no action had been taken and so she approached this Court, she said.

She said that police instead of registering a missing case, registered it under Sec 366-A of IPC (Procuration of a minor girl). This was done deliberately to report the complaint as a mistake of fact, she contended. This Court it is at a loss to understand how a case can be registered under Section 366-A of IPC. The police officer is not even in a position to register a case under a correct section.

The judges said they are of the opinion that this warrants action against the officer so that it would be a lesson to others in future in registering cases and asked the DIG of Tirunelveli to take action against the officer.

PTI