Santosh Koli Death Case: Delhi High Court Rejects Revision Petition Seeking FIR Against Kejriwal And Others

The Delhi High Court recently dimissed a revision petition challenging the order of trial court rejecting the plea for registration of FIR against Arvind Kejriwal and other persons regarding the death of former Aam Aadmi Party worker Santosh Koli in 2013.Justice Neena Bansal Krishna in her order dated October 4 upheld the order passed by the additional sessions judge whereby the judge had rejected the application seeking registration of FIR noting that no offence under SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act is made out from the averments made in the complaint.The petition before the High Court was filed by Kalawati, the mother of Koli, who had alleged that her daughter was murdered pursuant to a political conspiracy.Kalawati had initally filed a complaint on April 1, 2022, seeking registration of FIR against Arvind Kejriwal, Kumar Vishwas, Vandana, Kuldeep Pawar, Gaurav and Pankaj, under the relevant provisions of IPC and the SC/ST (POA) Act. However, no FIR was registered. In her complaint she had also alleged that her daughter was murdered because she hailed from backward class.The High Court observed that even if the averments made by Kalawati are accepted, there is no caste based abuse or remarks to insult, abuse or humiliate which can be deciphered. It was further noted that the averments only impute motive on the persons to have allegedly murdered her daughter because of their caste, which is essentially based on her hunch and has no basis.The High court in its order also noted that an FIR was initially registered in Ghaziabad and after conducting due investigation an untrace report was submitted before ACJM Ghaziabad against which a protest petition was also filed by Kalawati.Considering the fact that a protest petition was also filed by Kalawati which was accepted and further investigation was ordered, the High court observed that a second FIR cannot be registered once the FIR about the incident had already been registered.“Once the FIR about this incident had already been registered, in which the investigations had been undertaken and when further investigations have already been directed on the Protest Petition of the complainant-Kalawati, the law does not permit the registration of second FIR on the same incident”, Justice Krishna said while dismissing the revision petition.On June 30, 2013, Koli was travelling as a pillion rider on a motorcycle on their way to Kausambi, Ghaziabad to attend a Party meeting when the motorcycle was hit by an unknown vehicle and Koli suffered grievous injuries, and the motorcycle also caught fire because of the impact.Koli was admitted initially in Yashoda Hospital, Kausambi, Ghazibad and was subsequently shifted to Fortis Hospital, Gurgaon, but eventually, she succumbed to her injuries on August 7, 2013.