MRITUNJAY KUMAR Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner, who is serving as a Second in Command (2-I/C) in Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), has approached this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India seeking the following reliefs:-

(2.) The relevant facts pertaining to the present petition are that the petitioner joined the CRPF as an Assistant Commandant (AC) on 8/10/2005 through direct recruitment and was promoted to the rank of Deputy Commandant (DC) in August 2012. The controversy at hand developed when the petitioner was posted to 22nd Battalion (Bn.), Hazaribagh, Jharkhand on 1/9/2016, under the command of respondent no. 4 i.e. Mr. Vishnu Gautam who, as per the petitioner, put undue pressure on him to commit illegal activities, such as planting weapons on the persons apprehended/arrested during the normal course in order to falsely frame them as Naxalites. This, he claimed, was with an intention to improve the Commandant's standing with his superiors and to gain their favours.

(3.) However, as the petitioner did not succumb to this undue pressure, the respondent no. 4 threatened to ruin his career by tarnishing his APAR and by issuing baseless warnings, if he does not cooperate in the said illegal activities. Being faced with this predicament, the petitioner from February, 2018 till 2019, had complained against the ill-treatment and biased attitude of the Commandant, which was solely on the basis of refusal of the petitioner in participating in the said illegal activities/practices.