Damage to car: HC quashes case against woman for lack of corroborative evidence

The High Court of Karnataka has quashed a case against a 37-year-old woman accused of damaging a neighbor’s car by spraying acid on it.

Richa Singh Chitranshi, a resident of a flat in Bengaluru, was accused by Santhoshi Prasad, the president of the residents’ association of the apartment, of causing damage to the vehicle by throwing acid on it when it was parked in the basement of the residential complex.

An FIR was filed and the case was pending before the XLIII Additional CCM Court. A complaint was lodged in 2017 and the Magistrate issued a summons to Chitranshi after accepting the charge sheet filed by the police. Chitranshi was charged under Section 427 of the IPC. The section deals with ”mischief causing damage to the amount of 50 rupees.”

”Whoever commits mischief and thereby causes loss or damage to the amount of 50 rupees or upwards shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both,” the Section reads.

High Court Justice Hemant Chandangoudar, in his judgment on June 13, said, ”The police have not placed any corroborative material so as to substantiate the allegation that the petitioner-accused has caused damage by throwing acid.”

Quashing the case against Chitranshi, the High Court said, ”In the absence of any corroborative material, filing of the charge sheet only on the basis of the allegations made by the respondent and the eyewitness is without any substance.”