Karnataka High Court grants relief to senior IPS officer, six others booked for initiating false case

The Karnataka High Court has quashed cognisance of offences taken by the special court for Lokayukta cases against IPS officer Seemant Kumar Singh and six other former Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) officers who had been charged for having illegally initiated criminal proceedings against a realtor..In an order passed on July 5, Justice M Nagaprasanna set aside the special court order that took cognisance of the offences against the seven police officers on the ground that even if the allegations of illegal proceedings and misuse of power was accepted, such activities were prima facie an extension of the discharge of their official duties and a prior sanction should have been secured from the competent authority for prosecuting the officers, who were public servants..“On a coalesce of the judgments rendered by the Apex Court quoted supra what would unmistakably emerge is, if there is no nexus with the acts alleged to the discharge of official duties sanction would not be required, but if it is in the discharge of official duties sanction would be imperative. In the light of the preceding analysis, it cannot but be said that the acts of these petitioners were in the discharge of their official duties. Therefore, sanction under Section 197 of the Cr.P.C., was undoubtedly imperative and for taking of cognizance Section 13 of the Act it is needless to observe, Section 19 of the Act is imperative to be followed,” the Court said..In 2023, a private realtor, one A Mohan Kumar, had approached the special court for lodging a private complaint against the officers, the then DGP Seemant Kumar Singh, DySPs MK Thammaiah, Vijay H, Uma Prasanth, and Prakash R, and Inspectors SR Veerendra Prasad and Manjunath H Hugar.Kumar had claimed that in March 2022, the accused who were all officers of the ACB at the time, had conducted searches and seized some items from his private property without a warrant. Kumar had also written to the competent State authorities seeking sanction for prosecution of these officers, but he had gone ahead with his private complaint without such sanction.The special court had subsequently taken cognisance against the officers for several offences, including misuse of powers, criminal misconduct and criminal intimidation..While the special court had held that no sanction for their prosecution was required as the acts alleged against them could not be considered as their official discharge of duty, all seven officers approached the High Court seeking to quash special court.The High Court allowed their petition saying that the alleged acts were part of their official duties..However, the Court noted that the special court order was to be faulted only on the point of prior sanction and therefore, while such order was liable to be set aside, Kumar’s complaint against the officers did not automatically stand vitiated..[Read Order]