The Bombay High Court has quashed an FIR registered by Tardeo police in 2018 against a man who entered a dance bar, where obscene acts were being committed, and was there for merely 15 minutes.
A division bench of Justices Sunil Shurke and Milind Sathaye quashed the FIR against 35-year-old Prince Makwana observing that he had entered the dance bar and was there for merely 15 minutes, for which he cannot be made to face trial.
Cases registered against the owner, manager, and staff
The HC was hearing a petition filed by Makwana seeking quashing of the FIR saying that he was falsely implicated in the case. His advocate Hare Krishna Mishra argued that Makwana had entered the bar as a customer around 10.15pm to have dinner and a cup of tea.
The Mumbai Police registered cases against the owner, manager, cashier, waiter, and bar girls of the restaurant, accusing them of engaging in obscene dance and other acts while serving liquor to customers. The FIR was under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Maharashtra Prohibition of Obscene Dance in Hotels, Restaurants, and Bar Rooms and Protection of Dignity of Women (working therein) Act, 2016.
Chargesheet states Makwana was in the bar as a customer
The court noted that “admittedly” Prince was a “customer, who had entered the bar and was inside the bar only for a temporary period of time”.
Besides, the chargesheet also states that Makwana was inside the bar only as customer of the bar and it “does not attribute any overt act” to him.
“That being so, the Petitioner cannot be said to be a person, who had done something as amounting to commission of any of the offences which have been registered in the present crime or was instrumental in abetting any of those crimes,” said the bench.
'Fit case for making interference in the matter'
Quashing the FIR, the HC noted: “Thus, there is no material available on record on the basis of which it can be said that the offences registered in the present case or any of them are/is prima facie made out against the petitioner. Therefore, this is a fit case for making interference in the matter.”
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