India, Feb. 27 -- The Supreme Court on Friday came down heavily on the Rajasthan Police for acting like "James Bond" and adopting a "shoot first, ask questions later" approach, while quashing an extortion and fraud case.

A bench of justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta described the FIR as "as bogus an FIR as it can get" and said it conveyed a disturbing message that "a common man has no remedy to lodge an FIR while there are privileged people who can register FIRs at the drop of a hat".

The strong remarks came during an exchange with additional solicitor general SD Sanjay, who appeared for the state of Rajasthan.

"What kind of an FIR is this?" the bench asked at the outset. "You would throw out a common citizen who tries to register ...