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Some Specimens of the Nobel and Learned Profession Part II

Title: Some Specimens of the Nobel and Learned Profession – Part II


Some Specimens of the Nobel and Learned Profession - II

(In the context of false case booked under Section 498A of IPC)

By

B.N.GURURAJ, Advocate



In this narration,


CL
stands for Civil Lawyer of the Accused person.

CRL stands for Criminal side Lawyer of the Accused person.

OL stands for opposite side lawyer.

PP and APP stands for public prosecutor and Assistant public prosecutor respectively.



Bail was granted



Next day, the CRL asked me to be present in the magistrate court campus by 1200 hours. Till that morning, I was under the impression that the accused person would be brought from the Parappana Agrahara Central Jail and the bail application would be decided in his presence. The basis for this assumption, as an advocate who had done some work on criminal side, I had seen that the proceedings usually took place in the presence of the accused persons. Much to my distress, I learnt from a colleague whom I met in the court that at the stage of grant of bail, the accused will remain in JC until the bail order is communicated to the jail authorities. In some unlucky cases, I was told, the accused had remained in JC even for a week! All the while I was thinking that spending a night in the jail was bad enough, but here was worse news. Now, my prayer to the Lord Upstairs was to bless the accused with freedom at least today.



I waited there along with original property documents as I was going to be the surety for getting the accused husband on bail. CRL came and straight away entered the typists’ pool, choose a typist with an aged typewriting machine and dictated the surety affidavit, after gathering my particulars and the particulars of the property I owned. We went to notary public to get the affidavit and enclosures notarized. I asked the notary what is the fee, although I knew that it should be around Rs.30. The notary said, “whatever you decide to pay!” CRL told me to pay his Rs.30, which I did. The CRL did not have any tools for stitching or stapling the papers together. I too did not carry either the stapler, or sewing needle or thread, which I usually did when I have to do some filing. Eventually, he managed to borrow stapler from a court staff and bunched the paper together. The manner in which he was handling the papers left them crumpled and creased. I had to wince at this treatment of papers, for I was used to meting out far gentler treatment to the document I handle.



Be that as it may, by
1.30 pm, we were in the court hall. Before going to the court hall, we sent to APP’s office outside the court hall to ensure that he had his objections ready with him. He indeed had it ready, though he did not serve us any copy. We waited with bated breath for our matter to be called.



In the meantime, I had to step out for a short while as a client wanted to urgently consult me on some matter. While I was discussing with my client, CRL suddenly rushed out of court hall and frantically beckoned me. “Matter is about to reach! What are you doing standing there!”. Duly chastised, I joined him in the court.



Within next few minutes, the bench clerk called out our case. APP said “I am filing my objections”. The magistrate heard the CRL for just two minutes and exclaimed “what do you want? Release of your client, isn’t it?” CRL exhaled a breath of relief and uttered a relieved “Yes!”



APP again opened his mouth to say that passport of the accused should be impounded. CRL jumped to his feet and said “your honour!, this Hon’ble court has no power to impound the passport! I am producing Suresh Nanda case, where the Supreme Court has so held. Your honour may read it at convenience.” APP saw the decision and said “your honour!, that decision is distinguishable. That was a case where the passport had been seized during search. In this case, there is no seizure. Therefore, it can be impounded!” But, the magistrate ignored this intervention by the APP and went about dictating the bail order. Suddenly he paused and asked, “Who is giving solvent security?” I stepped forward. I was in counsel’s dress. He looked at me quizzically and asked me whether I was indeed the surety. I assured him that I was a counsel and also a relative of the accused and was willing to stand a surety. I described the property to him. The magistrate saw the originals, returned all the originals and completed the bail order, with usual conditions (1) not to threaten the opposite party, (2) to mark attendance in the police station on every Sunday, until further orders, or until charge sheet was filed. Personal bond and surety bonds were fixed at Rs.30,000 each.



Thereafter, the magistrate heard another bail application and allowed it and the court rose for recess. This was a case, where a high ranking executive of a company had been grabbed by the police from his office, also on false complaint, by a wife who was in comatose condition in a prestigious
hospital of Bangalore! This husband was spending close to Rs. 40,000 a day towards hospitalization for this complainant wife. He too was in early thirties. Evidently, the complaint had been filed by the wife’s relatives, as a means of extracting money from the husband, whom they considered as a money bag.



After the court rose, I shook hands with CRL and found to my surprise, it was clammy and cold as dead fish! It was perversely reassuring for me to know that even lawyers with decades of experience feel diffident while representing the client in a critical matter such as this!



The paper work for getting the accused out



Immediately, we rushed to the court typist and tipped him heavily to ensure that he typed the order immediately. Next we tipped the bench clerk to ensure that he placed the typed copy for signature of the magistrate. After securing that end, we went to the court’s Pending Branch and tipped the Assistant, whose job it was to write the bail bond, surety bond and release order. He had not reported to duty in the morning! We anxiously waited for some news about who else would write these documents. Fortunately, after about ten minutes wait, the person arrived there like an angle. Apparently, he had to perform certain religious ceremonies in the morning. The call of the duty (and the handsome tips it fetches) was so important that he reported to duty in the second half!



The CRL thereafter explained to me that mere dictation of order in the court did not ensure release of he accused. We had to ensure that the order was typed and signed by the magistrate; that the signed order reached the Assistant who wrote down the release order and bonds; that these documents had to be again placed before the magistrate for his signature; thereafter, both the documents had to be delivered to the court courier, whose job it was to deliver the orders to the Parappana Agrahara Central Jail by 6 O’clock in the evening. Therefore, we could not rest or think of eating food, until the release order duly signed by the magistrate reached the court courier.



Between
2.00 pm and 3.00 pm, we made certain that the order was typed, and reached the bench clerk for obtaining the magistrate’s signature. Promptly, as promised, when the court re-assembled at 3.00 pm, within minutes, the bench clerk got the bail order signed by the magistrate. Then, we tipped the court peon so that he would carry the signed file to the Assistant in the Pending Branch who wrote the bail bonds and release orders. The Assistant was quite helpful. Within next ten minutes, we had both documents ready. The court peon took it back to the bench clerk in the court. We anxiously hovered behind the Bench clerk to ensure that he placed it before the magistrate. In a few minutes that was also done. However, I found that in the surety bond, the magistrate had not signed. Once again, I told the bench clerk to place the paper before the magistrate for signature. This was also done. The court peon, rather grudgingly took the papers back to the Assistant in the Pending Branch. The Assistant wrote the details of the bail bond and release order in a register, and sent it through the same peon to the court courier, whose office was located in the ground floor.



The court courier was not available, someone else in that office took the orders and acknowledged it. We were told that it would be in our interest to be ready with our cars, so that we could expeditiously take the court courier with us. We were advised to be present at that office by
5.00 pm positively.



Thereafter, CRL and I went out to eat some snacks in a restaurant few buildings away. When we returned, the brother in law of the accused was waiting for us, to pay the fee of the CRL. Previous evening, though the accused was sent to JC, I felt that for that day’s running around, the CRL must be rewarded. I had paid him 10K the previous day. Now, the brother in law asked what the fee was. The CRL hemmed and hawed a lot and finally demanded 15K, including the 10K I had paid the previous day. For all the running around he had done since yesterday, all of us felt that he had understated the fee. I told the brother in law to pay another 10K to the CRL. A relieved and broadly grinning CRL took the additional fee of 5K with happiness writ large on his face. But, as experience would show in the later days, such goodwill gestures do not weigh at all. A generous person is treated as a damned fool.



Thereafter, the CRL introduced us to a policeman who worked in Parappana Agrahara police station and lived in the vicinity of that jail. He told us that this constable could be of some help to us. The police seemed nice enough a person. He praised the court courier as a very nice and helpful person. To me, it meant that for certain money consideration, he might be able to speed up the release process from Jail, which I had learnt by now, could go on until
10.00 pm.



The CRL left for the day, cautioning us about the nefarious characters we were dealing with. He cautioned us, rather exaggeratedly I thought, that the opposite party would not hesitate to snatch away the accused husband as he came out of jail. Therefore, we must go there in strength! We faithfully followed this advise. Three of us got ready to proceed in two cars.



The accused husband got out at last!



By
5 O’clock, we went to the court courier’s office and found him over there. He seemed like a nice, well behaved person. He joined us by 5.10 pm and asked us to leave. The policeman, the court courier, and one of his relatives, who had just landed in Bangalore also joined me in my car. The brother in law and a cousin of the accused followed us to the Jail in another car.



After going through the terrible traffic of
Hosur Road, by the time we reached the vicinity of the Jail, it was about 6.15 pm. The place remote and foreboding. Police station was on the left hand side and the imposing structure of the jail occupying perhaps a hundred acres was on the right. We parked the car at the end of the road. I accompanied the court courier and the policeman to the entrance of jail. The Policeman had promised me to take me inside the jail. However, at the entrance, the guard on the inside of the entry door refused to allow me entry, although I was in counsel’s dress.



During the waiting time for next hour and a quarter, I saw the rude and wild behaviour of jail guards. If you think the police are arrogant, you would change your opinion after seeing the jail guards. I wondered what kind of training had been imparted to them. Perhaps, it was necessary for them to deal with hardened criminals inside the jail. But, should they have same abrasive and attacking behaviour with the public outside the jail compound?



The policeman and the court courier had promised to get our accused person out of that place in about fifteen minutes. True to his word, during our journey, he actually called someone inside the jail and requested him to keep the person ready for release. However, this did not happen. We had to wait upto
7.30 pm before we could see our person.



We were chased from the entrance of jail to the outer compound. From outer compound, we were chased to the opposite side of the road. Our cars had to be removed hastily from where they had been parked, as a wandering guard threatened to deflate the tyres!



We saw a huge crowd of people, about forty of them, unmistakably ruffian characters. Remembering the scare put into us by the CRL, we began to wonder, which of them might to snatch away our accused person? To our relief, it turned out that a big thug was released at around
7.10 pm. These people had arrived to receive him. The thug was given a hero’s welcome and the cavalcade left the place in about ten minutes.



Next our person came out by about
7.30 pm. He had given message to his father through a public phone installed within jail to send Rs.4000 in hundred rupees currency. This was for repaying the ‘facilities’ given to him in the jail such as clean meal plate, a blanket and pillow, and for not troubling him during the night and day. However, having come out of jail, he had no way of taking back the money for distribution. We left the place, with the accused husband in the car with his brother in law and cousin, and I escorted back the court courier who came out after about ten minutes. I believe that the presence of these people certainly helped our person to come out within an hour and a quarter. Many more persons for whom release orders had been delivered had not been let out yet. We thanked what little luck we had and started our journey back to the city.



Once we reached the city, I gave Rs.200 to the court courier. He looked at it rather dubiously and said “I have to pay the jail staff who made it possible to get your man out within an hour. Give me another one thousand rupees”. Without demur, I paid him, dropped him near the court complex and left for home. All of us reached home, within half an hour of each other. At night, the accused husband was recounting the experience of being State guest for a day. It included story about caste-wise group formation within the admission area of the jail, casually beating up the under trials, setting them on the jobs such as cleaning of toilets and so on. It seems that one person was caned on the leg for refusing to tell his caste! In the admission area, there were caste groups, which helped people of their own kind, with blanket, bowl, pillow and so on. Though the composition of the group changed every day with old under trials going inside the jail, and new detenus joining, the groups appear to continue perpetually. I was too tired to listen to these tragic-comic stories and retired for the day.


Please note: One should read complete Part I till VI to understand the ground zero gravity of such criminal proceedings. Hence the necessasity of reproducing I to VI part series giving complete insight of Nobel and Learned Professionals and are anti – thesis of following Three Parts

Forum Home > Family Law > How to prove Section 498-A charges?


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