35-Year-Old Case Against Ex-CRPF Officer Quashed by High Court Over Flawed Sanction
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has quashed a 35-year-old criminal case against former CRPF officer Ajay Kumar Pandey, citing a flawed and delayed prosecution sanction lacking evidence, The Indian Express reported.
The case, filed in 1990 in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pattan police station, accused Pandey of wrongful confinement and disappearance during anti-militancy operations. The complaint, made by Peerzada Ghulam Mohammad, alleged that CRPF personnel had taken his son, who never returned.
Despite no progress for years, the J&K government sought prosecution sanction in 2007, which was granted in 2010—two decades after the incident. The court criticized this delay and said no new evidence had emerged.
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Pandey, who was earlier cleared by a 1992 CRPF inquiry, challenged the sanction, calling it arbitrary. The court upheld his plea, noting he wasn’t even deployed in the area of the alleged incident and slammed the authorities for overlooking prior findings.
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Justice Vinod S Bhardwaj said there was no material linking the officer to the charges and warned that ignoring procedural safeguards could expose officials to “malicious complaints.” The court cited past Supreme Court rulings where similar delays led to FIRs being quashed.
