New Delhi, The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to entertain a plea by former Delhi Mayor Farhad Suri seeking registration of an FIR against Ghaziabad police officials for allegedly conducting an “illegal” raid at his residence here in search of a journalist in connection with a criminal case.
The bench also declined to entertain Suri’s alternative plea seeking guidelines governing inter-state police raids. The law officer also denied the police search was illegal. “We were trying to arrest a gentleman. There was a proper GD entry. Delhi police officers simply rang the bell of this person…to find out if the person was there.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana directed Suri to approach Delhi police for seeking registration of an FIR instead of invoking Article 32 of the Constitution to approach the top court directly. “The relief regarding direction to register FIR against police authorities of Uttar Pradesh can very well be addressed if the petitioner approaches a jurisdictional police station under Section 175 of the BNSS . Suri had alleged that on the intervening night of August 22 and 23, a large contingent of Ghaziabad police officials entered his Delhi residence without a warrant while searching for Abhishek Upadhyay, a journalist and an accused in a road rage case. The counsel for Uttar Pradesh opposed the plea, saying Suri cannot directly come to the top court invoking Article 32 to seek registration of an FIR without first exhausting the statutory remedies available under the BNSS. Suri’s advocate opposed the state’s submissions, alleging that around 15 police vehicles carrying a large contingent of officers had reached the petitioner’s residence.
We have no reason to doubt that competent police will not strictly act in accordance with the law,” bench said in its order. When he said no, we simply left. We did not even enter his house,” the law officer said.
