HC to SHO: Plant 1k fruit trees for not serving notice in rape case
Bhopal: A division bench of the MP High Court directed the station house officer (SHO) of Kotwali police station in Satna town to plant 1,000 fruit trees as punishment for not serving a High Court notice to a rape survivor.
This notice was issued following an appeal by the accused in the case, who was sentenced to life by the trial court. The court further directed that the SHO concerned would bear the expenses incurred in planting the trees and would also look after them for a year. The SHO is required to send pictures to the registry of the MP High Court with GPS location.
The SHO, who appeared in court, apologised to the judges and offered to undertake the plantation of fruit trees at Chitrakoot as a sign of remorse, in addition to paying Rs 5,000 penalty imposed by IG, Rewa, for the lapse.
A sessions court in Satna sentenced Ram Avatar Chaudhary to life imprisonment on Oct 10, 2021, on the charge of rape. He filed a revision petition in the MP High Court against the trial court order. The High Court issued a notice to the rape survivor on Sept 30, 2024, with an instruction to Kotwali police station, Satna, to serve the notice on the rape survivor. However, the notice was not served on her.
The bench of Justice Vivek Agarwal and Justice A K Singh, while accepting the request of the DHO, asked SP Satna to inspect the plantation site and submit a compliance report along with an affidavit. The court further asked the SHO to look after the trees for a year so that they properly grow and stated that the entire expenses of the exercise would be borne by the SHO himself. The case will now come up for hearing on Sept 16.
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