Vigilance director Loknath Behera against naming accused in FIR sans proof

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Vigilance director Loknath Behera has directed the vigilance officials not to name officials or individuals as accused in first information reports (FIRs) without sufficient evidence, but merely based on complaints. Instead the accused need to be mentioned as ‘unknown’ in FIRs. The new directive will be a relief to officials and individuals from being shamed by arraigning in vigilance cases based on false complaints. Taking a leaf out of his experience with the CBI, Mr Behera said in the directive that if there was no specific evidence to connect an official or individual with an allegation raised in a petition, the FIR need to mention the accused as ‘unknown official’ or ‘unknown person’.

If sufficient evidence were obtained during the detailed investigation, the accused could be named in the charge-sheet later. He cited the 2G spectrum case of CBI as an instance as the accused were mentioned as ‘unknown officials’ and ‘unknown private persons’ in the FIR. The accused were named in the charge-sheet filed later. “It is improper to arraign some persons as accused in the FIR, solely on the information lodged by the informant, particularly when a preliminary enquiry is conducted on such allegations and the role of the offenders named by the informant are not revealed in the preliminary enquiry," said the directive by Mr Behera, who is also the state police chief.

The Supreme Court guidelines in Lalita Kumari case mandates police to register a case if cognizable offences were revealed in a petition. Hence many officials were arraigned in Vigilance cases merely based on petitions that revealed cognizable offences. There were serious concerns that these provisions were being misused to shame officials by lodging baseless complaints and insisting on FIRs against them. Even if the cases are closed later, personal damages will be caused to officials if they were once arraigned.