The Supreme Court on Friday came down hard on Rajasthan Police for behaving like “James Bond” and adopting a “shoot first, ask questions later” approach, while quashing an extortion and fraud case.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta described the FIR as “as bogus an FIR as possible” and said it conveyed a disturbing message that “the common man has no remedy to file an FIR while there are privileged people who can register FIRs at any time”.
These strong statements came during an exchange with Additional Solicitor General SD Sanjay, who appeared for Rajasthan.
“What kind of FIR is this?” the bench asked at first. “You will fire a private citizen who tries to register this FIR with the police. This is as bogus an FIR as can be. We are shocked at the manner in which this FIR has been lodged,” she added.
When Sanjay asserted that there were complaints and that many victims had not come forward out of fear, and argued that quashing the FIR would close the door to the investigation, the bench strongly disagreed.
“You are wrong. In Rajasthan, the common man has all the remedies to go to the police to register an FIR and if they do not, they go to the courts. But we cannot allow such an FIR to remain even for a day,” the court said.
By analogy, the bench asked: “Can you register a murder FIR against someone just because someone tells you that ‘someone has committed many murders across the country’? Can you register an FIR? This is exactly what happened in this case.”
“Your client cannot be a privileged client until the police roll out the red carpet for him…The FIR has been quashed,” the bench said.
In stern comments during the hearing, the court asked the state: “Are you James Bond? Shoot first, ask questions later?”
Senior advocate Siddharth Agarwal appeared for the petitioner Ashish Dev, former regional head of Zee Channel Rajasthan.
The case stems from an FIR registered in September last year at Ashok Nagar police station in Jaipur on a complaint filed by Zee Media Corporation Limited through its representative Sanju Raju. The complaint alleged that Dave abused his position to demand money from vendors and third parties, and threatened negative media coverage if they did not comply. She accused him of extortion, fraud, and causing financial and reputational damage to the company. Multiple provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita were relied upon.
However, Dave challenged the FIR as false and vague, arguing that the dispute was civil in nature between him and the company and did not reveal any criminal offence.
The Rajasthan High Court had earlier refused to quash the FIR, stating that the allegations were serious and required investigation. While the Supreme Court noted that the media is the fourth pillar of democracy, it held that neither journalists nor media officials may abuse their power and allowed the investigation to continue. It was directed to notify Dave before any coercive action and to cooperate with the investigation.
Dave then moved to the Supreme Court. On December 1, the Supreme Court issued a notice to the Rajasthan Police and the company and extended the interim protection granted by the Supreme Court, ordering that no coercive action be taken against Dave on the condition that he cooperates with the investigation. No arrests were made in the case, and Dave appeared for questioning.
On Friday, the Supreme Court took a tougher view on registering an FIR. Rejecting the state’s plea that cancellation would affect many alleged victims and halt the investigation, the bench said the FIR itself was legally unsustainable.
“This FIR should be quashed,” the court said, adding that allowing such a complaint to remain registered would send a wrong message about access to justice.
