The state government argued in the Bombay High Court on Wednesday that no separate First Information Report (FIR) is necessary for the police officers involved in the encounter death of 24-year-old Akshay Shinde, previously arrested in connection with the Badlapur school sexual assault cases.
Senior Advocate Amit Desai, representing the government, stated that an Accidental Death Report (ADR) has already been filed, which legally suffices as an FIR under these circumstances. “You may label it anything, but legally it is an FIR. The ADR number is the FIR number,” Desai explained to the division bench comprising Justice Revati Mohite-Dere and Justice Neela Gokhale.
The statement prompted a significant remark from the bench, with Justice Mohite-Dere noting, “If you are arguing that an ADR is an FIR, then it is a big statement that you are making.”
Desai further referenced the landmark ‘PUCL vs Union of India’ Supreme Court case, which imposed strict guidelines on investigating custodial deaths and encounters, suggesting that encounters now require special consideration regarding their investigation.
The bench was addressing a petition by Akshay Shinde’s father, Anna Shinde, who demands that an FIR be registered against the officers accused of fatally shooting his son under suspicious circumstances during transit for questioning in another case.
Countering the government’s position, Senior Advocate Manjula Rao, representing the petitioner, argued that under section 173 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), the police are compelled to file an FIR upon receiving information about the commission of a cognizable offence.
Desai rebutted, emphasizing that the State CID is already investigating the case under section 176 of the BNSS or the former section 157 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), which pertains to different procedural requirements than those cited by Rao.
