Fraud cases: Lucknow CP Sujeet Pandey scraps order for probe before FIR

LUCKNOW: Getting registered a case under the charges of forgery, dishonesty, or using forged documents under Lucknow police commissionerate is expected to get easier. Until now for cases to be registered under the Indian penal Code of 420, 467, 468, 471 a probe was to be conducted by a gazetted officer and thereafter only an FIR was to be registered.
This practice had started when the then Lucknow CP Sujeet Pandey had issued an order on February 12, 2020, almost a month after the commissionerate was established in the city.
The then CP had issued an order to all the officers that cases in which the fraud amount is more and encompasses charges of dishonesty and others, will first be probed by a gazetted rank officer and then sent to the SHO for registering of an FIR. On Friday, Lucknow CP SB Shiradkar discontinued this practice citing a Supreme Court order.
However, the practice was stopped only after a city-based lawyer Dhruv Singh lodged a PIL in the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court against the order of the then CP Pandey. Thereafter, the court directed the UP government to respond to the petition on August 6, 2022, following which a time of three weeks was sought by the UP government for a reply.
The double bench of Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Shree Prakash Singh met again on September 8 after no response was received from the state and in their order directed an additional four weeks' time for a response. "It is made clear that in case no counter affidavit during this period is filed, the matter may proceed ex-parte and adverse inference against the respondent (UP govt) may be drawn," the order stated. Following this, the current CP withdrew the order.