New Delhi: The Supreme Court has directed the CBI to conduct a preliminary enquiry regarding the alleged abduction of a dentist by Chandigarh police personnel to prevent him from appearing in court, saying that the allegations relate to the personal liberty of a citizen.
A bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Ahsanuddin Amanullah said: "After hearing the rival submissions at the Bar, we are of the opinion that although this matter springs from a complaint at the hands of the foreign nationals who were at one time patients of the respondent but thereafter it may have taken a course in utter violation of the Constitution and the laws and therefore an independent investigation is indeed required to clear all doubts as to the allegations as they relate to personal liberty of a citizen".
Earlier, the apex court had stayed a High Court order directing the registration of an FIR and setting up of an SIT to probe the alleged abduction of the dentist by Chandigarh police personnel to prevent him from appearing in a court.
The bench, in an order passed on August 6, which was uploaded recently, said it is not inclined to interfere with a Punjab and Haryana High Court order. Additional Solicitor General K M Nataraj had submitted that if at all an independent investigation is required then an enquiry in the matter may be entrusted to the Central Bureau of Investigation.
The bench said the suggestions seem to be fair and the counsel, for the dentist, has no objection to it. The High Court had directed for the registration of an FIR and setting up of a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the issue.
"Accordingly, it is directed that the CBI shall conduct the Preliminary Enquiry as directed by the High Court on the basis of the facts mentioned in the complaint," said the bench, in its order.
The bench said to ensure that there is no roving enquiry, it is made clear that such preliminary enquiry shall be restricted strictly in terms of the version of the respondent (the dentist) in his complaint dated February 3, 2022.
The court asked the CBI to enquire whether the doctor was "detained or arrested" by the Chandigarh Police at the Sector 19 police station and produced before the local magistrate within 24 hours. The top court also asked the CBI to examine whether the "detention or arrest" of the doctor by police officials amounted to abduction.
The apex court passed these directions on an appeal filed by the Chandigarh administration against a March 3, 2023 order of the High Court. Mohit Dhawan, a Chandigarh-based dentist, had filed a suit for the recovery of some outstanding dues owed to him by a woman from Nairobi in Kenya for her treatment.
Dhawan’s counsel had contended that due to this, the dentist was implicated in a series of complaints about improper treatment allegedly provided to the woman.
According to the administration, the case relates to Dhawan, against whom a criminal case was lodged after the Nairobi national accused him of cheating her when she came to India in 2017-18 to get dental implants from his clinic.
