Mumbai: The Supreme Court has quashed an FIR lodged by Panvel Police on May 17, 2016 against Pramod Suryabhan Pawar on the basis of the WhatsApp messages he sent to a girl he once wanted to marry.
The girl had filed the case against him under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities Act) and other IPC provisions, alleging they had physical relationship for years on his promise to marry. She went to Police on getting the insulting messages and attacking her on the grounds of her caste, after he refused to marry her.
The message because of which the Bombay High Court refused to quash the FIR in a judgment on February 7 reads: “You are bad for society. If shoe is kept on head, then head would get dirty. Reservation did not add any intelligence; You have got Govt service with ease.”
The Bench of Justices Dhanjaya Chandrachud and Indira Banerjee allowed the appeal, set aside the High Court ruling and quashed the FIR dated May 17, 2016, holding that no offence is made odut under the SC/ST Act as it then stood.
Hence, the allegations in the FIR do not establish the commission of the offences alleged, it said. On the WhatsApp messages sent by Pawar to the girl, the Bench said:
“The messages were not in public view, no assault occured, nor was the appellant in such a position so as to dominate the will of the complainant girl.”
