HANUWANT SINGH BHATI Vs. STATE OF RAJASTHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is yet another unfortunate case where a person has to seek protection of this Court against inaction and indifferent casual approach of the authorities concerned.

(2.) WHILE the petitioner serving as Additional District Magistrate (In-charge of Law & Order), Jaipur City, Jaipur, there has been an encounter between the police and militants of Khalistan Liberation Force, an internationally banned group of terrorists, in the Model Town area of Jagatpura, Jaipur in the night of 25th/26th of February, 1995. One terrorist - Navneet Singh Kandia - was killed and other terrorists managed to escape from the spot. When the petitioner came to know about the incident he rushed to the spot immediately and supervised the search operation in which an empty leather briefcase was traced containing one car key with a paper slip attached thereto. Petitioner, at his own initiative, started thorough investigation of Transport Department records and traced out the Head-quarters of international terrorists and all other secret hide outs in Jaipur in the mid-night without fearing of his life. It was found that many dreaded terrorists like Daya Singh Lahoria, Harnek Singh and others were operating terrorist activities from their secret hide outs in Vaishali Nagar area of Jaipur. On the basis of such information collected by the petitioner, highly sensitive arms, ammunition, sophisticated explosives, huge amount of deadly RDX and TNT explosives, AK 56 rifles, loaded fire arms, magazines and ammunition in bulk quantity were recovered with the assistance of the police authorities. Such a huge recovery was made for the first time in the history of the State.

(3.) WITHOUT processing and pursuing the matter any further, the most unfortunate part is that the authorities washed their hands just by awarding three advance grade increments to the petitioner, the monetary benefit of which comes to only Rs. 375/- in the salary per month. This is nothing but tossing a coin in the bowl of a beggar. The humiliation of the officer in such circumstances can be well imagined. Such pathetic sadistic approach of some of the higher authorities is highly deplorable. Instead of generating confidence among the officers such authorities only lose respect for themselves.