Delhi HC Orders Police To Register FIR Against BJP Leader Shahnawaz Hussain In Rape Case

The Delhi High Court ordered the police to register an FIR against Bharatiya Janta Party leader Shahnawaz Hussain in a rape case. The court also ordered the Delhi police to complete the investigation in three months.

In June 2018, a woman residing in Delhi filed a petition in the lower court and requested to register an FIR against Shahnawaz Hussain for rape. She alleged he gave her intoxicants, and raped her at a farmhouse in Chhatarpur and threatened to kill her. She alleged that Hussain called her to a farmhouse and raped her after lacing her drink with a sedative.

The Delhi High Court upheld a 2018 lower court order that directed the Delhi police to register an FIR against the accused. The court said in an order, “The police have a lot to explain for not having registered the FIR on the receipt of the forwarded complaint.”

Shahnawaz Hussain Rape Case

Justice Asha Menon referred to the status report filed by the police and said that the complainant’s statement was recorded on four occasions. However, there is no explanation as to why the FIR was not filed against the accused, Hussain.

Shahnawaz Hussain argued that the court had not disclosed reasons for directing the registration of the FIR and claimed the investigation by the police had “completely falsified” the woman’s case. He claimed that he had not left his residence after 9:15 pm and could not have been in Chattarpur at 10:30 pm as the woman had alleged.

The police in the report informed the lower court that the complainant’s allegations were not found to be substantiated. Senior advocate Siddharth Luthra appeared for the accused and told the lower court the police had given Hussain a clean chit, despite being directed to register an FIR. He added that the police’s reply to the complaint in the court should have been treated as quashing the report.

Justice Menon rejected the argument that the police reply should have been treated as a report and that an FIR must be filed before coming to conclusions in such investigations.

The Delhi High Court said in the order, “The FIR only puts the machinery into operation… It is only after investigations that the police can come to the conclusion whether or not an offence had been committed and if so by whom.”

The court added that if the police treated the reply as a cancellation report, a notice needed to be issued to the complainant and give her the right to file a protest petition.

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