City of Lights & (Il)legal vibes (4)

 

Chapter 2

“There are wounds that never show on the body that are deeper and more hurtful than anything that bleeds.”

-         Laurell K. Hamilton

Panic and I are old acquaintances. I first met Panic in the corridors of the Engineering College where I studied. In that first year of college, when ragging was rampant in the name of “introduction” of the newcomers, I first knew what Panic was. This churning in the stomach, this loss of sleep – all these were the bodily manifestations of panic-induced stress. Much water has flown under the bridge since that first year in college, and every stressful episode in my life was accompanied by Panic. In that December afternoon, amidst the sea of black-and-white clad humanity who were deriving sadistic pleasure by harassing me, I again met Panic. I had a panic attack.

 

My days went in a blur. My nights were sleepless. The doctor in the OPD of the nearby government hospital prescribed sleeping medications and referred me to a psychiatrist. But the medication-induced-sleep brought with it lurid nightmares. For the first time in life, insomnia seemed preferable to sleep.

 

Meanwhile, I came to know that Debjyoti had filed a complaint against me in the court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Aloknagri. Girindranath, the Secretary of Aloknagri Criminal Bar Association, was pleading the case for him. Most surprisingly, cognizance was taken without any sanction from the State Government. Was the ACJM not aware that in such cases, previous sanction of the government was necessary before taking cognizance? Or were there any other compulsions? Nobody had the answer.

 

(Note: Under Section 200 of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973, “A Magistrate taking cognizance of an offence on complaint shall examine upon oath the complainant and the witnesses present, if any, and the substance of such examination shall be reduced to writing and shall be signed by the complainant and the witnesses, and also by the Magistrate.

 

Again, under Section 197 of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973, when any person who is or was a public servant not removable from his office save by or with the sanction of the Government is accused of any offence alleged to have been committed by him while acting or purporting to act in the discharge of his official duty, no Court shall take cognizance of such offence except with the previous sanction of the Central Government, or the State Government, as the case may be.)

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