Court dismisses civil suit filed by Cong leader against IPS Rashmi Shukla

Nagpur, Sept 10 (PTI) A court here on Wednesday dismissed a civil suit filed against IPS officer Rashmi Shukla by Maharashtra Congress leader Nana Patole over an FIR, noting imputations made in the report are not the publication of a defamatory statement.

The court also held that since the said FIR had already been quashed by the Bombay High Court, there was no need to file the suit.

Patole had claimed he was defamed and his image maligned by the contents of the First Information Report (FIR) registered at Bund Garden police station in Pune on February 25, 2022.

Shukla was then the police commissioner of Pune. She is currently the DGP, Maharashtra.

Patole had filed the suit, seeking relief for damages caused to his image.

Shukla, in a plea seeking dismissal of the suit, contended that the imputations in the said report are not against the plaintiff (Patole), but it was lodged against her, and it contains nothing but allegations with no proof.

Her plea stated that Patole's suit had miserably failed to make out a case and is liable to be rejected.

Advocate Devendra Chauhan, appearing for Shukla, submitted that the FIR had already been quashed by the Bombay High Court.

Accepting his submission, the court said that under such circumstances, "it cannot be said that there is a cause of action to file the present suit." The court stressed that the suit was based solely on the contents of an FIR, which cannot be considered a publication of a defamatory statement.

"The imputations made in the FIR are not the publication of a defamatory statement. In such circumstances, it cannot be said that the cause of action arose for the plaintiff to file the present suit," the court said. PTI AVI NSK