: A court here has refused to quash criminal proceedings against a man accused of causing death of a person by negligence in a 2011 fire incident in south Delhi, saying the investigating officer had “twisted facts” to show it as an accidental happening.
The court dismissed the plea of Harish Ahuja, the accused contractor who was carrying out welding work in the building in Jasola when the fire broke out causing the death of a person and injury to another, while upholding the magisterial court’s 2015 order summoning him to face trial for offences under the IPC. “I have no hesitation in holding that in the complaint made to the police, the complainant had levelled categorical, emphatic and clear allegations against the petitioner. His statement cannot be brushed aside in a lighter manner until the veracity of the statement is examined,” Additional Sessions Judge Lokesh Kumar Sharma said.
Violation of norm
The court rejected his contention that the incident took place on December 11, 2011, whereas the order was passed by the magistrate on August 6, 2015, almost four years after the incident, which was beyond the permissible time period.
“I am not impressed with this contention of the petitioner [Ahuja], because despite the occurrence of an offence, the IO had twisted the facts in such a manner so as to give it an accidental happening without fixing any liability upon anybody. It was only after the intervention of the court that in its March 21, 2014 order it arrived at a definite opinion that it was a case of rash and negligent act on the part of petitioner,” the sessions judge said. — PTI
