On Thursday, 4th January, the Punjab and Haryana High Court quashed an FIR filed last year against Times Now Navbharat reporter Bhawana Gupta (Bhawana Kishore) for allegedly hitting a Dalit woman with a car and hurling casteist slurs against her.
A bench of Justice Anoop Chitkara observed, “It remains undisputed that the accused/petitioner had no personal knowledge of the victim’s or her family’s caste. As such, the Court cannot presume that the accused was aware of the victim’s caste or tribal identity. Given this, the primary burden was on the complainant to establish this knowledge, which they did not state. Neither the State nor the complainant mentioned that the petitioner was aware of the victim’s caste, and their conspicuous silence speaks more than the words.”
The court invoked its inherent jurisdiction under section 482 CrPC and quashed the FIR and all subsequent proceedings qua the petitioner, saying that it was a fit case where continuing criminal proceedings would amount to an abuse of the legal process.
Notably, in May 2023, Bhawana Gupta, cameraman Mrityunjay Kumar, and the driver of their car, Parmender Singh Rawat, were arrested in connection with the road accident. While the accused were charged under Indian Penal Code sections 279, 337, and 427, the TimesNow journalist was charged also under Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act sections 3 and 4. The FIR against Kumar and Rawat had already been quashed by the high court.
Gupta argued, through her lawyer, that even if the allegations were assumed to be true, she had no intention of abusing the woman with the words attributed to her in the FIR because she had never met her and was unaware of her caste. The counsel additionally contended that the FIR was politically motivated, fabricated, and would stifle the media’s voice.
The state counsel, on the other hand, argued that the investigation was in its early stages and that Gupta intended to insult the woman with casteist abuses, thus violating the provisions of the SC/ST Act.
Justice Chitkara ruled that the driver of the vehicle was responsible for the offences under IPC sections 279 (rash driving) and 337 (causing hurt by doing any act so rashly or negligently), and that section 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees) was involved in the damage to a mobile phone that had fallen as a result of the accident’s impact.
“It would be a travesty of justice to arrive at a finding of a prima facie case that the petitioner, who was not driving and was a passenger, had caused impact with the vehicle with the intention or knowledge that the driver will cause an accident, the phone that the victim might be carrying would fall, which in turn would cause a loss of more than Rs.50. Thus, by such an imagination, the ingredients of mischief could not have been invoked against the petitioner,” the bench noted.
“Even if all allegations of causing damage to the phone are taken to be true, it will not constitute any offence against the petitioner, punishable under Sections 279, 337, 427 IPC,” the Court said, dismissing the FIR for an offence under Sections 279, 337, 427 IPC.
Furthermore, regarding the accusation that Bhawana Gupta hurled casteist abuses and insulted the complainant publicly for belonging to SC/ST, Justice Chitaka opined, “Offence under the Act is not established merely on the fact that the informant is a member of Scheduled Caste unless there is an intention to humiliate a member of Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe for the reason that the victim belongs to such caste.”
In the face of the foregoing, the Court ruled that continuing criminal proceedings would be an abuse of the legal process, and thus quashed the FIR and all subsequent proceedings relating to Gupta.
Back in May last year, Times Now had alleged that their reporter was falsely implicated in an SC-ST case by the Ludhiana police. The channel also said that she was not driving the vehicle and was not responsible for the accident. Bhawana was arrested while she was on her way to report the inauguration of Mohalla Clinics by AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal.
The channel, hinting at an alleged witchhunt launched against them by the Aam Aadmi Party after their recent “Operation Sheesh Mahal” expose against their supremo Arvind Kejriwal, said that Bhawana was taken away in a car by a male cop before a flimsy FIR was filed against her in Ludhiana’s Section 3 Division Police Station. It was also noted that the said cop was not wearing a nameplate displaying his name while taking Bhavana.
Speaking about her ordeal last year while she was held in police custody, Bhawana had said that she was forced by the police to use the toilet with its door open. “I was not feeling well, so I ate the food [they gave]. The driver and cameraperson also ate a little. I was having a lot of water as I was feeling nervous. When I went to the washroom, 2-3 female constables accompanied me. There was no electricity or water at the police station [I was kept in],” Bhawana said.
