By Rabindra Nath Choudhury

Copyright deccanchronicle

Raipur: The Chhattisgarh high court has taken the police to task for demonstrating class discrimination by being soft on the affluent offenders and harsh on the culprits belonging to the weaker sections of society.Taking strong exception to the release of the cars used for stunt shows by some youths here recently, a division bench of the high court comprising Chief Justice Ramesh Sinha and Justice Bibhu Datt Guru observed that ‘It appears that the wrath of the police only falls upon the poor, middle-class, and the downtrodden but when the culprit is an affluent person either in terms of muscle, money or political backing, the police authorities becomes toothless tiger.’ Such offenders are let go off by paying a meagre amount of money in terms of fine and their vehicles are also released and handed to the owners, the bench noted. The high court has taken suo moto cognizance of the recent incident in which some youths were seen doing stunts over the 18 running cars on the national highway here which threatened to endanger the life of the passersby. Some passersby recorded their actions in their mobiles and reported the matter to the police. According to the advocate general of Chhattisgarh Prafull N Bharat, the police has registered an offence under various provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act and the vehicles used in performing the stunts have been seized and recommendations have been made to cancel the driving licence of those car owners for rash driving.’ The high court remarked that it is difficult to understand as to what restrains the police authorities to register offence under the relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023 or under any other stringent laws against such offenders ‘who endangers the life of other commuters by their irresponsible and negligent act.’ “The action taken by the police against hooligans should be such which may be a lesson for their life. The action taken by the police in the present case is merely an eye wash”, the court observed. The high court bench directed the police to seize the 18 cars and that the vehicles should not be released ‘without the leave of this court’. The high court asked the chief secretary of the Chhattisgarh government to file an affidavit informing it as to what action has been taken against the offenders. The next date of hearing in the case has been fixed on September 23.