Heinous crime should be treated as crime against society, says Bombay High Court

MUMBAI: Crime of 'serious nature' should be treated as crime against the society and not an individual and such a case cannot be quashed even if the offender and victims reach an amicable settlement, the Bombay High Court has said.

A division bench of justices N H Patil and P D Naik on August 25 refused to quash a case lodged against 12 people on charges of attempt to murder and various other sections of the IPC.

The accused had petitioned the high court seeking to quash the FIR lodged against them on the ground that they have amicably settled the dispute with the complainants.

The high court, however, refused to accept this contention and said, "The accused have committed crime against the society."

The bench noted that if the crime committed by the accused is 'heinous' and of a 'serious nature' then it should be treated as a crime against the society and not against an individual alone.

"It becomes the duty of the State to punish the crime doers even if there is a settlement/compromise between the perpetrators of the crime and the victim," the court said, dismissing the accused persons' petition.

A case was registered in July by Zia-ul-Haq Nijamuddin Ansari and Shahanawaz Khan against the 12 people for attempt to murder and various other charges under the Indian Penal Code at suburban Kurla police station.

According to the complaint, on July 5, the complainant and his brother were assaulted by the accused after they refused to sell spare parts in their shop at a lesser price as demanded by the accused persons.

In the scuffle, the accused persons allegedly poured hot oil from a snack shop nearby over the complainant due to which he suffered severe burn injuries all over his body. When passersby intervened, the accused ran away.

An FIR was lodged following which all the accused persons were arrested.

However, later, the complainant and his brother sent a letter to the police claiming that the whole incident was an accident and that they do not want to pursue the case.