The Andhra Pradesh police on Friday incurred the wrath of the court for misusing the sections in criminal procedure code to create troubles for the accused who are arrested in various cases.
On Friday, Mangalagiri court judge lashed out at the police for misusing Section 111 of the CrPC in the case of Chebrolu Kiran Kumar, a former ITDP worker who was accused of making offensive remarks against YSRCP Chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s wife, YS Bharathi on YouTube channel.
When Kiran was produced before the Mangalagiri court, which ordered a 14-day judicial remand for him, after which he was shifted to jail. However, during the hearing, the judge expressed dissatisfaction with the police’s handling of the case.
While registering a case against Kiran for his remarks was justified, the judge objected to the imposition of Section 111 of the CrPC against him.
The judge criticized the Mangalagiri Rural CI for applying Section 111 arbitrarily and accused the police of undermining the law.
The judge ordered Guntur SP to issue a charge memo to CI Srinivas Rao for misusing legal provisions.
The judge also directed the SP to submit a written explanation regarding the inclusion of this section. These developments have placed the police in a tight spot.
Interestingly, on Thursday, the state high court had also expressed displeasure just a day earlier regarding the use of Section 111 in a separate case involving actor Posani Krishna Murali.
The Section 111 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) — a preventive provision meant to maintain peace, but now under fire for being twisted into a tool of intimidation.
Section 111 empowers police to issue show-cause notices requiring individuals to maintain peace or face preventive action — but in this case, the court said it was being grossly misused.
The high court bench pulled up the police department for repeatedly defying its orders and acting in contempt of constitutional safeguards.
The court expressed grave concern that officers were issuing multiple preventive notices against Posani Krishna Murali without proper evidence, allegedly to mentally torture him and his family.
The bench noted that despite earlier directions, the Guntur police had issued at least ten separate notices under Section 111 CrPC to Posani Krishna Murali without involving the Executive Magistrate, as legally required.
The judge observed that there was no credible material to justify claims of a breach of peace and labelled the actions as arbitrary and unlawful.