BHAWANA GUPTA Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) A young female journalist, working for Times Now Navbharat Unit of Times Network as their Sr. Correspondent, has come up before this Court under Sec. 482 CrPC, seeking quashing of the above captioned FIR, by primarily asserting that (without admitting) even if the allegations are taken as a gospel truth, she had no intention or mensrea to abuse the complainant knowing that she belonged to the Scheduled caste community with the words attributed to her, because she was visiting the said location for covering a political event, had never met the complainant in her life, and was unaware of her caste, as such there was no question of violating Sec. 3(s) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities), Act, 1989, and other offenses are not attributed to her.

(2.) The prosecution's case is based on the statement made by one Smt. Gagan, which led to the registration of the FIR captioned above. The copy of FIR translated in English is annexed as Annexure P-1, and none of the parties disputes its translation. The contents of the FIR read as follows: - Statement of Gxxxx wife of RxxxKxxx resident of Balmiki Colony Ludhiana aged 50 years. Stated that I am resident of the said address and am a housewife. Today, on 5/5/2023 I alongwith Neelam Rani Resident of 991, Near Balmiki Mandir Chowk Division No. 3 and Sharda Resident of Ghaati Mohalla, Ludhiana were going to the inauguration of the new Mohalla Clinic by Chief Minister Bhagwant Maan at Mohalla Harcharan Nagar and were getting down from the e-Riksha near Shingaar Cinema crossing, and immediately upon getting down, a car driver while driving carelessly hit me from one side and while I was trying to defend myself; my right hand was injured due to the impact of the vehicle and due to the impact of the vehicle my mobile phone brand Samsung Galaxy fell down from my hand and was broken. On reading the number of the vehicle I found it to be UP-16-CD-6327 of Innova make Color White. The driver of the vehicle started arguing with me and when I asked the driver of the vehicle that why did you hit the vehicle into me and because of being hit by your vehicle, I have been injured and the phone of a poor has been broken. On this, alongwith the car driver, another man and a woman also came there and they alongwith the car driver started abusing me and the woman started saying "Tum NeechJaatiwaleychamaar logon ka yahikaamhai, tum log gaadiwalon se paisa aithnekeliyekisibhi had takgirsakte ho" and after saying this when I objected to it a lot of people gathered there and after a while your police party reached the spot. I came to know the name of the driver of the car as Parminder Singh Rawat, the name of the other person who argued as Mritunjay Kumar and the women who uttered caste indicative words as Bhawna. That the driver of the said car while driving recklessly rammed the car into me and caused me injury and caused damage to my mobile and the car passenger Bhawna insulted me by publically using caste indicative words against my caste and I may be provided justice by taking suitable action against them as per law. I have got recorded my statement with you in presence of my known Neelam Rani & Sharda, gone through, it is correct. Sd/- Gxxxx".

(3.) The State has filed its reply dtd. 29/9/2023 through the affidavit of the concerned Assistant Commissioner of Police, Emergency Response-cum-Nodal Officer the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities), Act, 1989 [SCSTPOA]. The petitioner has filed her rejoinder to the reply. The complainant has also filed her reply dtd. 16/10/2023. Opposing the quashing, the State contends that the investigation is continuing, and if this Court quashes the FIR, it will be throttling the investigation.