Court Clears Police in Unnao Rape Case Inquiry: No Direct Complaint Filed

A Rouse Avenue Court acquitted three Uttar Pradesh police officers accused of failing to register an FIR in the Unnao rape case. The court found no direct complaint was made to the police. The allegations stemmed from the victim filing a grievance on the Chief Minister's portal, not with police authorities.

In a significant legal verdict, a Rouse Avenue Court has cleared three Uttar Pradesh police officers of charges related to the alleged mishandling of the Unnao rape case. The court ruled on March 14, with the acquittal delivered by ACJM Mayank Goel, who stated that the victim had not directly approached the police with a complaint before taking her case to the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister's grievance portal.

The court found no evidence showing that the victim had directly informed the accused officers, including the Station House Officer or the concerned police station, about the alleged crime in accordance with Section 154(1) of the Criminal Procedure Code. During testimony, both the victim and her mother acknowledged that no complaint about the alleged sexual assault by former MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar was lodged at any police station before August 17, 2017, when the complaint was filed on the CM portal.

The police officers, namely Kunwar Bahadur Singh, Dharam Prakash Shukla, and Digvijay Singh, faced charges from the CBI under Section 166A of the Indian Penal Code for failing to register an FIR, despite the grievance submission. However, the court emphasized that the legal duty to register an FIR arises only when a cognizable offence is directly reported to the police. The evidence only pointed to an administrative inquiry process triggered by the grievance forwarded by the CM's portal. Consequently, the court acquitted the officers under Section 166A IPC, as the prosecution could not prove their deliberate failure to act on direct information of a cognizable offence.

(With inputs from agencies.)