Chandigarh, March 1
Lt Col Prithvi Singh Chauhan (retd) is on the wheelchair, disabled by Parkinson’s disease for the past 15 years. But his spirit to fight for his honour has been indomitable.

Helped by his wife, Gyan, Col Chauhan has written several letters to various authorities to upohold his honour, but in vain.

A decorated officer, he was accused of theft by a relative, with whom he has a property dispute, on January 12, 2005. An FIR was lodged against him, accusing him of taking away 9,000 bricks, 22 bags of cement and other construction material.

The matter was investigated by the then Naraingarh DSP, who found the case to be false. Thereafter, the then SP, Ambala, asked the SHO of the Barara police station to conduct further investigation. Strange, a junior officer was asked to reinvestigate the case after a senior officer had found the complaint to be false.

However, even the SHO found the allegations to be false. He went on to say that the incident had not occurred at all.

The police moved the court of Judicial Magistrate, Ambala cantonment, for the cancellation of the FIR but the complainant opposed the police closure report. The court upheld the complainant’s plea and issued summons to Col Chauhan under Sections 148, 149, 447, 427, 382 and 506, IPC.

Col Chauhan moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking quashing of the summoning orders. Quashing the summoning orders, Justice Daya Chaudhary said: “It is clear that the impugned summoning order has been passed without application of mind and without taking into consideration various factors and long litigation between the parties.” The matter went before the Supreme Court, which refused to interfere with the orders of the High Court.

Gyan Chauhan says the Army sent a gift to her husband on his 75th birthday early this year and then he received another birthday gift from the judiciary.

Col Chauhan now wants that the authorities should initiate legal action against the person who made a false complaint against him, making him suffer for years. He has given representations in this regard to several senior officers, including the Chief Secretary, the Home Secretary and the Director-General of Police. So far, nothing has been done.

Advocate Hemant Kumar says action can be taken under Sections 182 and 211 of the IPC against a person making a false complaint. But for this, a report by the police and an officer of the court is a must.