Heinous crime should be treated as crime against society: HC

Mumbai, Aug 27 (PTI) Crime of ‘serious nature’ should betreated as crime against the society and not an individual andsuch a case cannot be quashed even if the offender and victimsreach an amicable settlement, the Bombay High Court has said. A division bench of justices N H Patil and P D Naik onAugust 25 refused to quash a case lodged against 12 people oncharges of attempt to murder and various other sections of theIPC. The accused had petitioned the high court seeking to quashthe FIR lodged against them on the ground that they haveamicably settled the dispute with the complainants. The high court, however, refused to accept this contentionand said, "The accused have committed crime against thesociety." The bench noted that if the crime committed by the accusedis ‘heinous’ and of a ‘serious nature’ then it should betreated as a crime against the society and not against anindividual alone. "It becomes the duty of the State to punish the crimedoers even if there is a settlement/compromise between theperpetrators of the crime and the victim," the court said,dismissing the accused persons’ petition. A case was registered in July by Zia-ul-Haq NijamuddinAnsari and Shahanawaz Khan against the 12 people for attemptto murder and various other charges under the Indian PenalCode at suburban Kurla police station. According to the complaint, on July 5, the complainant andhis brother were assaulted by the accused after they refusedto sell spare parts in their shop at a lesser price asdemanded by the accused persons. In the scuffle, the accused persons allegedly poured hotoil from a snack shop nearby over the complainant due towhich he suffered severe burn injuries all over his body. Whenpassersby intervened, the accused ran away. An FIR was lodged following which all the accused personswere arrested. However, later, the complainant and his brother sent aletter to the police claiming that the whole incident was anaccident and that they do not want to pursue the case. PTI SPARSZMNRDS