How to fight criminal cases in India

Every day several thousands false cases are done in India to implicate innocents. This article is an attempt to help those innocents in terms of money and escape root. This article is based on practical experience of husband of 498A woman in this blog. The husband is facing several false criminal cases and he has shared his experience with this blog.

Most of Indian courts are temples of corruption. Most of the peshkars in court rooms are involved in this corruption racket. Most of magistrates and judges are like stone idols of gods in Hindu temples who see everything but can’t do anything. Many of peshkars, lawyers are like the priests in these temples who catch hold of devotees. The peshkar receives unaccounted money for every case under the nose of magistrate. When an order is passed the litigants are generally not given free copy of orders / judgement. They have to apply for certified copy. Provision of certified copy is gang operated. A certified copy costs around Rs 500/- to Rs 1,500/- in lower as well as Hon’ble high courts. Many pimps, lawyers and court officials are involved in the illegal trade of provision of certified copies. Courts only recognize certified copies hence this trade is thriving.

Lodging false cases is big business. The business starts from police station. Nowadays mostly all police officers starting from constables to Officer-in-charge are participants in this business. The police officers share the bounty and they do not have feeling of guilt. Nowadays they openly bargain and do blackmailing. Knowingly they write FIR’s in false cases . After preparation of charge-sheets they transfer the ball to lawyers. Lawyers thrive on hard earned money of litigants. Some lawyers even take money on name of magistrates or hon’ble judges. For bail and anticipatory bail applications lawyers take huge money. Sometimes this money goes into lacs.

All this is part of life. There are few good people also. Husband met only one good police officer during his mishap who did not take bribe and yet did his work honestly. That police officer was even rewarded for his good work. We know the system. Never get disheartened from the system. There are still the loopholes. Mantra is you have to find these loopholes and keep moving. Husband lately started enjoying the courts and the company of lawyers. He even learnt to write his own petitions. He started enjoying food in court premises. Believe it or not it’s a war and everything is fair in war. If the system requires corruption then corrupt it and get your work done. You need to survive.

How and why the false cases are done: False cases are done primarily to settle personal scores, to extort money and to take revenge. To do a false case one has to corrupt the police. Involvement of police is essential. Most of police officers get involved in these type of activities. The culprit approaches the police first in order to fabricate a false case. Police is bribed starting from Rs 1,000/- to Rs 1,00,000/- or more based on strength of case. The sections of law are laid under which the case would be done. The police officer suggests the non-bailable and cognizable sections so that they would get power to arrest the accused. For that the police officer takes extra charges. Nowadays this corruption technique is not practiced alone. The entire chain of junior and senior police officers are involved. Once the formula is set the action is played. The culprit lodges a police complaint. The police draws an FIR. If the accused is equally powerful then sometimes police informs the accused and takes money for not to arrest. In some cases police does the arrest of accused and for that extra money is taken from culprit. Now the case is started. Case is always started with writing of FIR (First Information Report). 

What happens after FIR: 

If police arrests you: Accused is kept in police custody. For certain facilities like providing home made food, mobile, temporary bed, allowing to sit on bench outside of custody room the police charges money. The money varies from Rs 30/- to Rs 5,000/- or more. In police custody you are kept with other under-trials. These people can be good or bad. But they would never misbehave with you. Withing 24 hours you would be placed before magistrate. You will be taken to court in police van. Police may tie a rope on your waist. If you pay then police may not tie a rope on you. You may be placed is a big hall in the court premises along with other criminals. Here you have to act tactfully. Other criminals may demand money from you otherwise they would beat you. Never get nervous. Try to show calm and cool. Behave like a criminal. Hurl abuses on others. Tell people that you are arrested for grave charges like murder, keeping illegal fire arms, rape etc. Then other criminals may not ask money from you. Face the other criminals boldly and do not pay them money. Here also the police helps transferring money to other criminals from you in case you surrender. The police has its own cut of share. In some courts there are VIP rooms. You can be put over there and not with other criminals in case you pay money. This ranges from Rs 500/- to Rs 1,000/-. Whatever it is you can bear these hardships on the basis of mental strength only. You need to be alert and should use your brains. 

You need to procure bail. There are professional pimps available in all criminal courts who sign bail bonds. In bailable offences the lower courts provide bail. You have to spend for lawyer fees and pay for bail bonds signed by pimps. Lawyers make arrangements for pimps. Pimps take percentage of bail given by magistrate. This percentage varies from 30% to 100%. Say you are granted a bail of Rs 1,000/-. The pimp would ask for Rs 300/- (30%) or say 1,000/- (100%). Little bit of bargaining can be done here. If non-bailable sections are laid in FIR then lower court generally does not give bail. You have to apply in High Court for bail. There is a public prosecutor. He is appointed by government. He religiously asks for your police custody (PC) for interrogation. If you are already in police custody for a few days and no interrogation is required he will ask for judicial custody (JC). In some cases these public prosecutors (PP) can be bribed. A bribed PP will just keep silent. PP can take from Rs 10,000/- to Rs 1,00,000/- for his silence. He would charge only when the bail is done. In case the magistrate does not give bail the PP would not charge. In some cases the magistrates have their cut from PP’s. Generally PP’s ask for huge money saying that they have to pay to magistrate.

If police does not arrest you: You need to procure anticipatory bail. Bail process is same as above. The role of PP is also the same. The lawyers charge higher fees for anticipatory bail. For non-bailable offences the lower courts generally reject the bail plea. In that case you need to move to session courts or high courts for anticipatory bail. In high courts lawyers charge heavy. They may charge between Rs 10,000/- to 3 lacs. There is no fixed rate for bail motions. In 498A cases the lawyers, pimps, PP’s and magistrates just mint money. If High Court also rejects anticipatory bail plea you have to move to supreme court. Even after getting bail from High Court or Supreme Court you need to surrender before lower court and procure regular bail. The lower courts generally give interim bails and later on convert it to regular bail. One word of caution over here. Lawyers charge based on capacity of person and his extent of trouble. Some lawyers make gangs. They would ask you to wait till vacations arrive and ask you to go underground. In vacations they charge double. This blog has information that sometimes lawyers have even charged Rs 50,000/- at lower court bails.

What happens after you procure bail: You get relieved for some time. Now is the time for police to submit charge sheet before court. The police gets influenced over here. If you strike a deal with police they have powers to release you. Almost in 90% cases police repeats the FIR in the charge sheet in routine manner. Police may take up to an year to place charge sheet. You will have dates over an interval of around 2 months in court. The lawyer may ask for Rs 500/- to 2,000/- for getting dates. Here you can save the money. Don’t pay to lawyers. Go straight to Peshkar of court (The person who places the case before magistrate). He will provide you the next date. He may charge around Rs 10/- for providing date. This is still cheaper than lawyer’s fees. You may approach the administrative department of court to get next date. If nobody co-operates then you may file application under RTI to find out the next date. This is the cheapest way. Draft a letter under RTI and give to administrative office in the court. If they refuse  to take it send them by registered post. You will certainly get reply. There is less corruption here. Before charge sheet your case will not start. You will only get dates after dates. The culprits may approach police to lay firm charges against you in exchange of money. Police generally does not put false allegations in charge sheet. At most they can copy the FIR in the charge sheet. They can also remove some sections from the charge sheet (CS). After charge sheet is filed your case will be transferred to a different court. Your case now will have a GR no. This is a serial number given by court. Now the trial will start.

Before Trial: Before the trial starts you can file discharge petition. But this discharge petition is rarely successful. Magistrates generally turn down these discharge petitions even if the case appears to be false prima-facie. This is routine practice in most of the courts. Filing of discharge petition may cost you Rs 1500/- using medium grade lawyer at lower court.

Before trial starts there will be a date which they call “Charge Frame”. On this day the magistrate will ask you whether you are guilty or non-guilty. You need to answer “Not guilty”. On this date you should not pay more than Rs 200/- to your lawyer.

How to look for economical lawyers: Mind it that in fighting criminal cases the lawyer is your biggest friend or foe. If you are not cautious they will just suck you. Here this blog provides a very practical tip based on experience of husband:

Tip 1: Husband has run short of money fighting so many cases. Initially he used to give 800/- to a lawyer for his every case. The lawyer used to just get the next date since the charge sheet was not filed. When husband realized it he himself approached to peshkar and got this work done in Rs 10/- In some cases he failed with peshkar and then he approached to the administrative office of the court. There he was conveyed the next date in Rs 100/- and in some courts Rs 200/-. Still this was cheaper than Rs 800/-. On one occasion husband filed one RTI application to get next date. To his surprise he got a letter from court within 15 days confirming the next date.

Tip 2: In one case it was the occasion of charge frame. Husband thought he would not hire a lawyer and do it himself. When his name was called he said he wanted to plead his case himself since he had no money remained. The peshkar was a bas*ard. He kept the husband waiting for 2 hours. Husband understood his intentions. In fact the lawyers give a bite to these peshkars. Now husband understood he ought to hire a lawyer otherwise the peshkar would make it a day. It is an interesting story how husband got an economic lawyer:

Husband looked for some vary young man / woman lawyer in the court and in nearby courts. He saw one young lady who appeared to have just started her practice. He approached her and asked her pleading rate. She told that she would charge Rs 200/- for normal case and Rs 300/- when witness was required. Husband hired her. Peshkar was lightening fast to relieve husband. Probably this was because of attraction of that young lady. The morale of story is:

You are a hunt and lawyer is the hunter. You need to be witty. You must understand when the argument will happen and when the dates will be taken or routine work will be done. For routine works like “Charge Frame” keep cheap lawyers. There is no need to waste on costly lawyers. Now how to hunt for cheap lawyers:

Measure the age of lawyer and his / her personality. A new joinee in age group 20-25 may do work in Rs 200/-. Age group 25-30 yrs may charge 500/-1000/- Age group 30-40 yrs may charge 1000/- 2000/-. Above 40 years are generally costly. So don’t try to pass by a lawyer ageing more than 40 years. That person will be costly. Hire costly lawyers for specific works.

Happenings during trial:

Husband has not yet faced trials. He would provide information when it is available

More information will be provided on this topic in due course.