HC orders transfer of cases against Akbaruddin Owaisi to CID

Hyderabad: Justice Ramesh Ranganathan of the AP High Court on Friday directed that the two cases booked against MIM MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi be transferred to the CID PS forthwith. " On receipt thereof the DSP, designated as the CID PS Station House Officer, shall register one them as an FIR and treat the other as a statement under Section 162 Cr.P.C; cause an investigation with utmost expedition; and forward his report to the competent magistrate/court at the earliest". It might be recalled that, the MIM MLA delivered two speeches on December 8 and 22 at Nizamabad and Nirmal based upon multiple complaints were lodged. He then challenged the same contending that the action of the police in registering multiple complaints for the very same speeches was unconstitutional and illegal. According to the various complaints, one by the police suo moto and the other by private individuals the petitioner had deliberately and maliciously intended to outrage religious feelings by insulting the religious beliefs of others, and to create communal disturbances in the country; he had abetted and instigated Muslims to wage war against the elected Government of India, and had sought to promote enmity between different religious groups; such acts were prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony. In a detailed judgment the court detailed the various steps in a case starting from the first information report and the investigation thereof. "Where more information than one are given in respect of the same incident, involving one or more than one cognizable offences, it is implied in Section 154 Cr.P.C that the officer in charge of a police station need not enter every one of them in the station house diary. It is the information first entered therein which is the FIR postulated by Section 154 Cr.P.C. All other subsequent information made orally or in writing after the commencement of the investigation, or such other cognizable offences as may come to the notice of the police officer during investigation, are statements falling under Section 162 Cr.P.C. and cannot be treated as an FIR as it would in effect be a second FIR, and will amount to an improvement of the facts mentioned in the original complaint, and hence prohibited under Section 162 Cr.P.C. the judge saud agreeing with the plea of the MLA. "Filing of multiple complaints, relatable to the same transaction, must be controlled as it causes tremendous harassment and prejudice" . the judge reasoned. Rejecting the plea to the contrary, 'there is no provision in the Cr.P.C. which casts a corresponding obligation on a police officer to register each such information, given by different persons, as separate FIRs.' the judge said. While the power to arrest an accused is conferred on the investigating officer under Section 41 Cr.P.C, construing the provisions of the Cr.P.C. as enabling different investigating officers attached to different police stations to, one after the other, arrest the same person for the same incident/occurrence would not be a fair or a just procedure.