The court concerned is the Delhi High Court and the matter is anything but comic — at least for the one at the receiving end.

It all began on an October evening in 2002, when two shopkeepers caught a man trying to make off with a can of juice. One of them was Mohinder Singh, a retired government servant.

When Newsline visited him, 69-year-old Singh was sitting in his D-55, South Extension 1 shop — the very site, where he had caught the thief six years ago.

Wrinkling his face in thought, Singh recollects: “We were at the shop, when I saw this shady looking man, with his hands behind his back. I confronted him, found the can in his hand and asked him for an explanation.”

The man, Anirudh Chakraborty, tried to flee.

Police say that Singh, along with some residents, forcibly stopped him. In the process, Chakraborty tripped and hit his head on a bench. He was taken to a local court, fined and sentenced to six months in jail.

But a surprise was in store for the Singhs. His son, Manjeet Singh (33), was shocked when he came to know that Chakraborty had accused him of hitting him on the head with an iron rod.

Though a medical examination revealed it was an “injury due to accident”, the Kotla Mubarakpur police went ahead anyway and registered a case under Section 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide) against Manjeet.

Manjeet Singh immediately filed a complaint with the Delhi Police Vigilance Branch against then SHO of Kotla Mubarakpur, Ashok Kumar and three Sub-Inspectors, including the Investigating Officer of the case, SI Sandeep Sharma.

“I had earlier filed a complaint against SI Sharma with the Vigilance and he had a grudge against me,” he says.

The report of the Vigilance inquiry that followed also observed this. “The direction issued by then SHO, Ashok Kumar, points a finger of suspicion towards him because he knew Singh had made a complaint against SI Sharma,” it said.

The report recommended that the case against Manjeet Singh be withdrawn and accordingly it was placed before the Screening Committee.

But before the Screening Committee issued a directive, the Limited Trial Court fined Singh junior to the tune of Rs 500 under Section 323 IPC (voluntarily causing hurt).

Singh immediately appealed in the High Court.

While the hearing was on at the High Court, on April 1, 2004, on basis of the Vigilance inquiry report, the Commissioner of Police ordered the transfer of Ashok Kumar and ordered that the case against Singh be withdrawn.

But the case is still pending in the Delhi High Court.

Singh senior, who retired from government service in the early ’90s, says: “My son has been going to the High Court for the past four years. The police sent us letters saying that the SHO did not carry out the investigations properly and was even transferred. But even so, the case is dragging on.”