Kolkata: Calcutta High Court on Tuesday discharged soldier Arun Prasad from a proceeding in Uttarpara after finding that he was on duty in Imphal when his neighbour alleged that he and his brother assaulted him in 2023.
The judge said forcing him to undergo the “ignominy and trauma” of a “false and vindictive police report” was an “unconscionable abuse of judicial process. ”
“It is physically impossible for an individual to inhabit two geographical coordinates thousands of miles apart simultaneously. Curiously, despite having been dropped by the police, he continues to be arrayed as a co-petitioner in the present revisional application, a procedural anomaly that highlights a fatal defect in the initial police action of roping him into this prosecution,” Justice Uday Kumar observed.
“neighbourhood friction and boundary disputes escalate into civil suits particularly when it casts a wide net over family members regardless of their actual presence or involvement,” demands “highest degree of judicial vigilance.”, according to the judge. “In standard criminal jurisprudence, a plea of alibi is an ordinary question of fact requiring evidence during trial through family members or private witnesses. In stark contrast, the alibi of Arun is not a self-serving plea; it is an officially certified state and military record verified directly by the commanding officer of an operational army unit,” the judge observed.
The judge asked: “Can a criminal prosecution survive against a person whose physical absence at the scene of the crime is officially certified by the State and military authorities, and can a general criminal charge be sustained when it bears all the hallmarks of a retaliatory counterblast to a pending civil dispute?”