Uttarakhand High Court
WPCRL/1444/2024 on 24 April, 2025
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IN THE HIGH COURT OF UTTARAKHAND
AT NAINITAL
THE HON'BLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE SRI G. NARENDAR
AND
THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE ALOK MAHRA
WRIT PETITION (CRIMINAL) NO. 1444 OF 2024
24TH APRIL, 2025
Between:
Bhuwan Chandra Pokhariya ...... Petitioner
and
State of Uttarakhand & others ...... Respondents
Counsel for the petitioner : Mr. Bhuwan Chandra Pokhariya,
petitioner party-in-person
Counsel for the respondents : Mr. J.S. Virk, learned Deputy
Advocate General with Mr. Rakesh
Kumar Joshi, learned Brief Holder for
State of Uttarakhand
The Court made the following:
JUDGMENT:
(per Hon'ble The Chief Justice Sri G. Narendar)
1. Heard the petitioner party-in-person, and also the
learned Deputy Advocate General for the State.
2. The petitioner party-in-person claims to be a social
worker and RTI activist. That he perceives a threat to his
life and limbs from the respondent Nos. 5 to 14. That he
has earlier filed a Writ Petition (Criminal) No. 1471 of 2023,
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seeking protection from one Mukesh Singh Bora, Chairman
of Nainital Milk Union, and Mr. Savin Bansal (IAS). That the
said writ petition came to be withdrawn on 30.11.2023 with
liberty to file a fresh petition. That the present petition is on
account of latest incident of attack mounted on the
petitioner, and that he harbours a reasonable apprehension
of danger to his life.
3. It is the case of the petitioner that he is a social worker
and has raised issues of corruption, misuse of public funds,
lack of basic amenities for public and other matters of public
interest. That the petitioner has preferred various Public
Interest Litigations and intervention applications before the
Hon'ble High Court highlighting mass level corruption in
mining sector, milk contamination in Uttarakhand
Cooperative Dairy Federation and issue of undue benefit
given to stone crushers by waiving the heavy fines imposed
on them. That the petitioner is an RTI activist and
whistleblower against corruption and has also contested
election of Zilla Panchayat in 2014 and the Legislative
Assembly in 2012. Since last 15 years the petitioner has
been obtaining information about the various schemes, and
more particularly, the illegal mining and corruption in
construction agencies of the State, National Highway scam,
OTS scam in mining, illegal promotions in mining
department etc. That he has preferred a Writ Petition (PIL)
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No. 127 of 2023, seeing for protection of villages from floods
in the entire State, and that he has sought dredging of the
rivers in the State. That some of the issues raised by him
before the Court is flouting of the rules by District
Magistrates and exempting the fine imposed on illegal
mining. That the exemption was done under the garb of
one time settlement scheme thus causing revenue loss of
more than 200 crores to the State Exchequer. The other
issue raised by him, rather his wife, by way of a Writ
Petition (M/S) No. 787 of 2020, is the permission granted by
the then District Magistrate to conduct mining within 10 Km
periphery of Nandhaur Wild Life Sanctuary contrary to the
judgments of the NGT. That the petition was filed in the
name of his wife Smt. Kamla Pokhariya. That enquiry have
been initiated by the Government and despite the passage
of 03 years no progress has been made. That he had also
sought for an investigation into the corrupt practices of the
Nainital Milk Union Lalkuan, and in this regard he has also
approached the Hon'ble Chief Minister on 23.08.2023
seeking action against the corrupt office bearers of Nainital
Milk Union.
4. We have perused the compilation in Annexure-9, which
is an order-sheet in Writ Petition (PIL) No. 186 of 2024,
wherein the present petitioner has made application as an
interventionist, and has been directed to file the same by
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way of an affidavit. The next order-sheet is in Writ Petition
(PIL) No. 112 of 2024, wherein the petitioner has been
directed to delete the respondent Nos. 5 and 6 from array of
the parties. We do not see any compliance of the direction
of the order dated 09.10.2023, directing him to file an
affidavit.
5. One more order-sheet is in Writ Petition (Criminal)
No. 707 of 2024, wherein he sought a direction to the DGP
Uttarakhand to decide the application dated 15.01.2023.
The said writ petition came to be rejected on 19.07.2024 by
giving liberty to petitioner to approach the State Police
Complaint Authority. Yet again, the petitioner has come up
with the instant writ petition seeking for a similar relief.
6. Be that as it may, the present writ petition is premised
on a set narration by the petitioner. It is his case that he
was traveling on 15.12.2024 and traversing the Chorgaliya-
Haldwani road, and when he reached the stretch which is a
forest area at Danibangar, his vehicle a Maruti Swift car,
was overtaken by a black Scorpio which did not have any
registration plates, and that two people got down from the
Scorpio and they assaulted the window-pane on the door on
the driver seat with a "talwar" (sword) and the windowpane
broke into pieces. That the assault on the window was
carried out by a sword, and that as there is no connectivity
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at the said spot, he drove back to the police station and
thereafter informed his relative etc. That his wife and
daughter, who were occupying the car, went into a shock.
That the petitioner was also accompanied by a relative and a
companion at the time when the vehicle was assaulted by
two unknown persons. That he could not identify the
persons as their faces were covered with masks. That he
was able to escape from the hands of the attackers as he
sensed trouble, and he rushed his car, and the attackers
could only give blows on the petitioner's car resulting in
several dents on his car and a broken windowpane. That
the petitioner's wife and daughter shocked by the sudden
attack became unconscious, and that he reached Chorgaliya
police station and lodged an FIR on 15.12.2024.
7. Yesterday during the course of hearing, we have
queried as to whether any attempts were made to
photograph either the vehicle or the assailants, to which the
petitioner had replied that as there was no signal or
connectivity in the said spot, and also in view of the
suddenness of the attack, the occupants of the car did not
think of either capturing photographs of either the vehicle or
the assailants. That they managed to return to the police
station with great difficulty.
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8. It is common knowledge that the camera in a phone
does not depend on the connectivity or signals for operation
of the camera installed in the mobile phone. Yesterday
when we asked him to show the pictures and the videos on
his mobile phone, the petitioner despite the passage of more
than 15-20 minutes, and despite the matter being
adjourned, did not place the relevant photographs or videos
on the phone.
9. Today he produces the same phone and he has opened
the WhatsApp chat of a person named Pankaj Bhatt, who he
claims forwarded the videos and photographs. On a query,
he would submit that the said person is a news reporter. On
a query as to how the news reporter came to know about
the attack, and as to how the said person was at the police
station on time, he would submit that he is not aware but
would state that several reporters had already gathered
before he could reach the police station.
10. We have examined the photo and also the report
submitted by the authorities after an examination of the car.
On an examination of the photo it reflects the collection of
pieces of glass on the driver's seat. It is apparent that the
assault on the windowpane would not have been by a sword
for the window panes are made of tempered glass, and
unless excessive force with an object with a larger surface
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area is used, the chances of the tempered glass breaking
into pieces appears to be minimal, and assuming that the
driver seat was occupied, the force with which the glass
pane is broken to pieces is likely to have the impact of the
pieces of the glass striking the face or body of the occupant,
and there is every chance that majority of the glass pieces
would have impacted the body of the occupant in the driver
seat, and would not have collected on the seat. The
collection of the entire pieces of the broken windowpane on
the driver seat would prima facie suggest that the seat was
not occupied when the windowpane was broken. This prima
facie opinion of ours forces us to disbelieve the petitioners
version.
11. That apart, the opinion of the authority which
examined the car is that the dents on the vehicle, one on
the rear and one on the window, do not suggest the use of a
sword. That apart, the video would show his daughter in an
oriented state and the wife sitting in the police station. That
apart, there is no material to show that the petitioner has
taken up cudgels against the high and mighty, though he
has arrayed the high and mighty, including the occupant of
the highest executive office of the State, and also several
officers. That apart, despite several questions, the
petitioner has been narrating the same answers. Despite our
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repeated intervention to restrain himself to the question that
is posed to him, the petitioner has continued with the
parroting of his version and made no effort to answer the
queries raised by the Court. It is apparent that the
petitioner is trying to browbeat the Court, and the complaint
rings hollow. In fact, we have also viewed the video said to
have been collected by him from the video camera of a
hotel.
12. On a query, the learned Deputy Advocate General
would submit that the videos were not shared by the
hotelier with the petitioner but on the contrary, the video
recording of the same was done by the petitioner when the
I.O. was viewing the videos recorded in the hard disc. The
complaint does not even describe as to what type of clothing
the assailants were wearing, and the vehicle that he would
show as having used to assault him, would be seen going in
the opposite direction, to the direction he was traveling. All
these inaccuracies and the gaping hole in his theory of him
being followed and attacked ringing hollow, the same does
not inspire confidence in this Court.
13. That apart, the petitioner has been filing repeated
petitions arraying persons occupying high posts without
alleging any specific role or leveling any specific allegations,
nor has he placed any material to demonstrate that he has
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collected incriminating material which would indict any of
them. It appears that it is a habit with the petitioner to beat
his drum and create noises without there being any
substance to back his allegations. The allegations ring
hollow because the so called PILs are not premised on any
concrete material much less any evidence which would
necessitate any of the persons holding high office to
threaten him or to harm him.
14. Be that as it may, the FIR having been registered and
the same having been investigated, and the police having
prepared a final report, and the report having been
submitted with the Magistrate court it is open for the
petitioner to pursue his remedies before the Magistrate
court. The petition apart from repeating bald allegations
and not being backed by any specific material, we do not
see any cause to retain the petition on board. The
allegations, prima facie, do not appear to have any
substance and in that regard the present writ petition
requires to be rejected, and is, accordingly, rejected.
15. The above observations are for the purposes of
this petition only and it is open for the Jurisdictional Court to
consider the case on merits without being influenced by the
observations made by this Court.
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16. The Copy of the final report placed before this Court be
returned back to the DAG.
_____________
G. NARENDAR, C.J.
____________
ALOK MAHRA, J.
Dt: 24TH APRIL, 2025
Negi
HIMANS
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Date: 2025.04.29 13:50:00 +05'30'
