HC fines four complainants Rs 55,000 for wasting cops’ time by filing cases only to arm twist their rivals in disputes

But in one of my case one habitual nuisance tenant registered a false complaint on 100 and set in motion the police machinery for harassing and arm twisting  me as I protested his parking car in compound illegally. What relief will court grant me and what punishment will court / police give this antisocial person. .....Alok  

HC fines four complainants Rs 55,000 for wasting cops’ time by filing cases only to arm twist their rivals in disputes

Abhijit Sathe and Bapu Deedwania mirrorfeedback@indiatimes.com

Police complaint as a tool to put pressure on your rival in a dispute is no longer as safe an arm twisting method as it used to be.
Taking note of how people file police complaints only to gain an upper hand in a conflict and then rush to courts to have FIRs quashed once the purpose is solved, wasting all the hardwork cops put into investigations, the Bombay High Court has fined four persons in two such cases a total of Rs 55,000.
The order delivered by Justice B R Gavai will not only deter people from filing police complaints they do not wish to pursue to their logical conclusions, but also bring much needed relief to an over-burdened police force.
The Rs 55,000 fine collected in these two cases, Justice Gavai ordered, would go the Mumbai Police Welfare Fund.
One of the two cases involved a dispute between the owner of an apartment and a builder, while the other involved a complaint filed by an employee of a businessman against his boss.
The first case was, in fact, a typical Mumbai real estate dispute and also quite symbolic of the situations where cops get used as a threat by one of the parties.
The fight was over a two-bedroom apartment booked by Sushila Patni in Thane's Manpada area in May 2010. The builder, J M Mehta, had lodged a complaint at the Kapurbaodi police station against Patni and one of his own employees, Mukesh Savla, accusing them of changing the price of the apartment in the original agreement.
Patni and Savla later filed a counter-complaint saying that Mehta had issued threats to them and was trying to extort money. Both parties, however, later reached a settlement and approached the High Court seeking directions to quash the FIR.
In the second case, Thane-based oil trader Suresh Thakkar was accused of cheating by his employee Ramesh Kharat. Kharat had alleged that his name was used by Thakkar to open several bank accounts and transactions were carried out without his knowledge.
Kharat filed a complaint at the Vartak Nagar police station. Accordingly, an FIR was lodged and the police began its investigations, calling for documents and recording statements of concerned people.
Kharat, however, later arrived at a settlement with his boss and moved High Court seeking quashing of the FIR. 
Delivering identical orders in both cases, Justice Gavai said: "There is no element of public law involved in the crime (in both cases). I find that no purpose would be served by keeping the criminal proceedings pending except burdening the Criminal Courts which are already overburdened. I find that in the interests of justice, the criminal proceedings are required to be quashed. However, at the same time, the costs need to be saddled on the parties for setting in motion the police machinery for settling their dispute."
While he directed Mukesh Savla, Sushila Patni and Jitendra Mehta to pay Rs 10,000 each to the police department, Suresh Thakkar was asked to pay Rs 25,000.
Advocate Ashok Saraogi, who appeared for Patni and Savla in the first case and Thakkar in the second, said the judge directed the public prosecutor to ensure that the parties involved paid the fine.
DCP (operations) Sheela Sail on Saturday confirmed that she had received all three cheques and that the amount would soon be credited to the Police Welfare Fund.