13-month delay in registering FIR: retired Maharashtra cop faces inquiry

The Maharashtra State Police Complaints Authority has recommended that a Departmental Inquiry be initiated against a retired police officer who took 13 months to register an FIR in a case of cheating and failed to make a single arrest.

The case had come up in September 2011, when Kanjurmarg resident Prabhakar Salgaonkar wrote an application to the Dharavi police station claiming to have been cheated by two men who offered to sell him a car but fled with Rs 15 lakh he gave them.

According to the complaint that Salgaonkar registered with the authority, the application was given to Assistant Police Inspector M Sankpal for investigation. The officer called Salgaonkar to register his statements in December 2011, June 2012 and finally October 2012, when a case of cheating and common intention under the Indian Penal Code was registered against Faiyaz Khan and Prashant Palkar.

But nine months later, Sankpal filed an ‘A’ summary report at the Metropolitan Magistrate in Bandra, asking that the case be closed with the plea that “even though the facts in the complaint are true and correct/genuine, the accused in the offence are not traced”.

After Salgaonkar appealed against the closure report, the investigation was reopened and handed over to another officer, who arrested Palkar and another accused named Shamshad Khan. Salgaonkar accused API Sankpal of not carrying out the investigation properly and sheltering the real culprits.

After Salgaonkar approached the authority with a plea for action to be initiated against Sankpal and with a claim for compensation of Rs 15.5 lakh, it directed the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Zone V, to investigate the allegations and submit a report.

In an order issued last month by the Chairperson, retired Justice A V Potdar and members — retired Additional Director General of Police P K Jain and Umakant Mitkar — the authority observed that “there was total inaction on the part of the respondent officer (API Sankpal) to arrest the accused whose names were disclosed in the complaint received in police station, for a period of nine months and resulted in classifying the offence as ‘A’ summary”.

The authority relied on the DCP’s report to observe that proper investigation by API Sankpal would have resulted in the arrest of the men at a much earlier date. “From the report of DCP Zone V, it is sufficient to hold that the respondent officer, API Sankal, was delinquent in the discharge of his duties: 1st for non-registration of the offence for a period of 13 months and 2nd his inaction in arresting the accused, resulting in classification of the case as ‘A’ summary,” the authority observed in its order.

The authority also held that even though Sankpal retired from service on May 31, 2017, under the Service Rules in the amended Maharashtra Police Act 1951, police officers are responsible for an action within a period of three years of their retirement.

“The respondent officer is liable for action for his fault in performing his duties. Considering the role played by the respondent police officer API Sankpal, we are of the view that the case of the respondent police officer is a fit case to be referred to the government for departmental inquiry for awarding suitable punishment,” the authority observed in its order.

The authority’s recommendations to the state home department are binding upon it, and the latter is required to give reasons in writing in case it does not want to carry out the recommendations.

The authority shot down Salgaonkar’s plea for compensation and asked him to approach a civil court for monetary relief. In its order, the authority also directed the DCP Zone V to reopen the investigations and lodge more complaints of cheating as the accused are suspected to have allegedly cheated more individuals apart from Salgoankar.