Court wants FIR in ISKCON property grabbing case

New Delhi: A court here has directed the Delhi Police to register an FIR in a case of alleged grabbing of a property donated to ISKCON trust in Greater Kailash here.

Metropolitan Magistrate Harun Pratap, who had earlier sought an action taken report (ATR) in the matter, directed the SHO concerned to register an FIR after noting that the report was "highly dubious and raised serious doubts over the veracity of the events". 

The court noted from the ATR that information about the house break and attempt to theft at the property by the representatives of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) trust was given to police by some persons. 

However, it said, "the claim of proposed accused number 1 being in the possession of ground floor of the property previously and even after the alleged breaking of lock by the representatives of the complainant trust as alleged in the ATR, becomes highly dubious and raised serious doubts over the veracity of the events brought to the notice of the court in the ATR furnished by the police." 

"The allegations of complainant (trust) regarding police being in collusion with the proposed accused also assumes significance in the background of the fact that the police is claiming an attempt of alleged breaking of locks in a property, which is apparently left unattended at present by the death of late Hemraj Thukral," the court said. 

The DCP concerned is directing maintenance of status quo by the parties and thus, assuming the powers of the civil court to decide over the factum of possession in such disputes, it said. 

The court also noted the submission made by advocate Shanker Chhabra, appearing for the trust, that the police did not collect any CCTV footage from the spot and the facts mentioned in the ATR were either contradictory or suppressive of various facts and appeared to be only a version of the accused persons. 

"The court, hereby, directs registration of an FIR in the present case and the SHO concerned is directed to initiate investigation at the earliest as per law," the court said. 

Following the court's order, an FIR was registered under Indian Penal Code (IPC)sections 448 (house-trespass), 467 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc.), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record), 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 34 (common intention) and 506 (criminal intimidation).