Indore, May 8 The Madhya Pradesh High Court has revoked the suspension of a police officer who conducted a raid at the private farmhouse of a woman IAS officer in Indore district nearly two months ago and arrested 18 people found gambling there.
In its order, the high court said that punishing a police officer for performing his statutory duties "shocks the conscience" of the court, and added that if such "outdated" suspension orders are allowed to continue, no officer will dare to raid any premises for fear of suspension.
Justice Jai Kumar Pillai of the Indore bench of the HC, in an order passed on Thursday, stated that the private farmhouse raided in the Manpur police station area, led by 2007 batch Sub-Inspector Lokendra Singh Hihore, belongs to a serving IAS officer.
After considering the arguments of both the parties, the single bench accepted the petition of the then station in-charge Hihore and quashed the order of suspension passed by the Superintendent of Police (Rural) on March 11.
The high court said, "The impugned order prima facie appears to have been passed in an arbitrary, colourable, and vindictive manner, leaving the Court with no option but to step in to prevent a gross miscarriage of justice. If these types of stereotype orders of suspension, like in the present case, are permitted to continue, then no officer would even dare to raid any premises due to fear of suspension."
Officials said that acting on a tip-off, police personnel led by Hihore raided a farmhouse in Awalipura village, under the jurisdiction of the Manpur police station, about 50 kilometers from the district headquarters. The operation was carried out during the intervening night of March 10 and 11, in which 18 people were held for alleged gambling, while six others escaped.
Hihore's side told the court that after the raid, he was put under intense pressure to either not file an FIR or change the location of the incident to conceal the identity of the farmhouse.
He said that despite the pressure, he filed an FIR mentioning the actual location of the incident, and was suspended the very next day.
The state government objected to Hihore's plea, stating that the petitioner was accused of failing to comply with instructions given in crime review meetings and failing to take effective action to curb illegal activities. He was suspended for not gathering intelligence. The state government also said that this action was taken because a departmental inquiry was proposed.
However, the high court said, "Strikingly, the State has failed to place on record any specific operational directive or statutory instruction that was purportedly violated by the petitioner. The justification hinges entirely on a sweeping, generalised allegation of a failure to gather intelligence, which is factually contradicted by the petitioner's own successful intelligence-based raid."
The single bench said, "Penalising a law enforcement officer for the prompt, efficient, and successful execution of his statutory duties is antithetical to the very concept of 'grave misconduct' and shocks the conscience of this Court."
The HC said, "It is highly pertinent to note that the petitioner in his writ petition has taken a clear, categorical, and grave stand that his suspension was the direct consequence of not honouring the undue pressure created upon him by higher authorities to alter the crime scene."
"It is striking and surprising that such a serious allegation of malice levelled against the respondents has neither been specifically nor categorically rebutted by them in their reply. This evasive silence further affirms the petitioner's contention that the suspension is entirely born out of his refusal to obey illegal dictates and undue pressure," it added.
