A special court in Lucknow has sentenced an advocate, Parmanand Gupta, to life imprisonment after finding him guilty of filing false rape cases by misusing provisions of the SC/ST Act with the help of a Dalit woman, officials said.
Gupta, who has been in jail for around a month, was earlier convicted for filing fabricated complaints intended to harass and target his opponents, the prosecutor told the court.
Special Public Prosecutor Arvind Mishra said that it was established on record that the accused Gupta had filed multiple fabricated cases in conspiracy with the woman, who had lodged several complaints containing serious allegations including rape and molestation.
According to the prosecution, official records indicated Gupta had instituted 18 cases while the woman had lodged 11. The court, however, acquitted the woman after she told the judges she had been misled; the bench ordered her release but warned her against abusing the SC/ST Act in future.
“The court has acquitted the woman, lodged in jail, after she admitted to having been misled,” Mishra stated, adding that the court ordered for her release.
The court convicted Gupta under sections of BNS 248 (“False charge of offence made with intent to injure), 217 (False information, with intent to cause public servant to use his lawful power to the injury of another person), and under section 3(2)(5) SC/ST Act.
The court, in its order, directed that to ensure convicted accused advocate Parmannand Gupta does not enter the court premises or practice, and to uphold the sanctity of the judiciary, a copy of the judgment and order be forwarded to the Bar Council of Uttar Pradesh, Allahabad.
While acquitting the woman, the Court, in its order, cautioned her that if in future she misuses the provisions of the SC/ST Act by entering into any criminal conspiracy with Parmannand Gupta or any other person to institute false cases of rape, gang rape, or other such offences, stringent legal action shall be initiated against her.
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The court also stated in its order that a copy of the judgment should be sent to the Commissioner of Police, Lucknow, with a direction that in cases where any person/woman repeatedly lodges FIRs for heinous offences such as rape or gang rape, it must be clearly recorded how many such FIRs, if any, have earlier been lodged by such person/woman or her family members against the same or other persons, or how many such applications have been submitted on the IGRS portal or at the police station.
This information shall be noted as a remark in the FIR registered at her instance. Further, in applications under Section 173(4) BNSS, when the complainant approaches the Court for registration of an FIR, details of previously registered cases at the police station shall also be furnished if sought by the Court, for which AI tools may also be utilized. Mishra said that the court passed the order while hearing the complaint case filed by police which during its probe found that woman, acquitted in the case, had lodged false rape case against two brothers at a police station in January this year. In the same complaint, the police also named advocate Parmanand Gupta for allegedly instigating the woman to file the false case.
During the probe, the police found that the rape case was allegedly filed against brothers due to a property dispute involving Gupta’s wife and the family of one of them. Police investigation revealed that the woman was not present at the place of incident during the period when she claimed the rape had occurred.
