Sh. Mahender Singh Chhabra vs State Of N.C.T. Of Delhi And Ors.
2004 Latest Caselaw 1230 Del

JUDGMENT

R.C. Chopra, J.

1. This writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India read with Section 482 Cr.P.C. (hereinafter referred to as `the Code' only) has been filed by an unfortunate father of a married girl, who died at her in-laws house on 7th October, 1994.

2. The facts relevant for the disposal of this petition, briefly stated, are that the petitioner's daughter, late Manjeet Kaur, was married to Jaspal Singh Narula in the year 1982. According to the petitioner, soon after marriage, the harassment of his daughter started on account of dowry demands. She was tortured physically as well as mentally to extract money and valuables from the petitioner. The petitioner kept on fulfillling the demands to the extent possible. However, on 7th October, 1994 at about 11.00 P.M., the petitioner was informed that his daughter, Manjeet Kaur, had died. He along with other family members immediately rushed to the matrimonial house of her daughter and found his daughter lying dead with one eye protruding. On enquiries, he was told that she had died at about 8.30 P.M. due to hitting of an iron rod accidentally. On hearing this, the petitioner fainted. Next day, he came to know from some neighbours that on the fateful night the deceased was beaten mercilessly by her in laws. As such he filed an F.I.R. No. 214/1994 which was registered at Police Station Geeta Colony under Section 498-A/304-A IPC. According to the petitioner, from the very beginning, the police did not investigate the matter properly and ultimately filed a cancellation report. Vide orders dated 4th August, 2003, the learned A.C.M.M. directed further investigations by an Officer not below the rank of A.C.P. but still the result remained the same. In these premises, the petitioner prays for transfer of ivestigations to C.B.I.

3. The respondents have filed a status report to say that after registration of F.I.R. investigations were taken up but the allegations made therein could not be substantiated. It is submitted that cancellation report is pending before the concerned Court for consideration.

4. After perusing the F.I.R., cancellation report as well as the case diaries, this Court is of the considered view that there are certain circumstances on record which cast a shadow of doubt on the impartiality and fairness of the investigations carried out by the local police. According to the F.I.R. deceased Manjeet Kaur had been murdered by her in-laws but still the police acting upon the version of the accused that the deceased was accidentally hit by a Saria chose to register an F.I.R. under Section 498-A and 304-A I.P.C. At the time of registration of F.I.R., at least, the police could have gone by the allegations made by the Complainant and registered a case either under Section 302 IPC or 304 IPC which could subsequently be converted into appropriate provision on the basis of the investigations. It is further seen that the police failed to collect any evidence as to how the Saria, which had penetrated five inches deep into the eye of the deceased and had injured her brain, was pulled out and by whom. The police also has no explanation on record as to why the Saria was not sent to F.S.L. for detecting finger prints on it. If the Saria had gone into the eye of the deceased accidentally, while deceased was handling it and she herself had take it out, the finger prints of the deceased alone would have been found thereon and in case the Saria had finger prints of others and no finger print of the deceased, a clear case of hitting the deceased with the Saria would have been made out. It cannot be readily believed that after sustaining such a serious injury which had pierced skull and damaged even the brain, the deceased could remain capable of pulling the Saria out of her eye. No blood was detected on the Saria but still the police did not try to find out as to how and why the blood disappeared from the Saria. There is no proper explanation on record as to why the petitioner, father of the deceased, was informed about the injury or death of her daughter after about 2 + hours of the incident. The in-laws of the deceased knew that the petitioner and his family were living nearby and if they had nothing to fear, they would have immediately informed them about the incident.

5. It is also quite curious that, according to the police as well as the in-laws of the deceased, the deceased had suffered fatal injury when she had fallen from the stair-case and had hit against the Saria but still no other injury except the fatal injury in the eye was found on the person of the deceased. In normal course, if a person falls in the stair-case, he would sustain some other injuries also on the body. The police has not explained as to who had informed the Police Control Room that a murder had been committed. The statement of one Amarjeet Singh was recorded by learned A.C.M.M. on 4th August, 2003 who stated that just before the incident, he was standing outside the house of the deceased and had heard shouts for help from inside and had also seen that one person with a blood-stained shirt had come out of the house and had gone to the adjoining house. No enquiries have been made regarding this evidence also. The aforesaid facts and circumstances indicate that right from beginning, the local police was acting curiously and was not inclined to delve deep into the matter to find out the truth. It is also not understandable as to why a challan under Section 498-A IPC even was not filed in spite of specific allegations made by the petitioner that his deceased daughter was being harassed and treated cruelly in connection with dowry demands.

6. The request of petitioner for handing over investigation to CBI cannot be acceded to for the reason that the incident is of 1994 and now after 10 years even CBI would not be in a position to collect further evidence in regard to the incident. Since the cancellation report is pending before the learned Magistrate, this Court without expressing any further opinion leaves it to the concerned Magistrate to determine as to whether any material is available or not on record to take cognizance under Section 4, 489A IPC or any other provision of law.

7. However, the facts and circumstances of this case call upon this Court to find out some solution to curb the inaction or collusive attitude of subordinate Police Officers in such serious offences. This Court is of the considered view that the investigations in serious offences at least should be under the personal supervision of the A.C.P. of the area and the D.C.P. should also undertake fortnightly monitoring thereof to ensure that the investigations are in right direction and above board. It also a pears expedient to keep the complainants and victims informed about the progress of investigations so that they do not remain in dark till their complaints are irreparably damaged due to faulty investigations and they become helpless. Not only this, this Court is also of the opinion that the time has come when greater emphasis should be on scientific investigations instead of old fashioned personalized investigations by subordinate officers of the police which gives them ample chance for manipulations and paddings. Manipulations and paddings in criminal cases have seriously eroded the credibility of the police as a result of which the Courts have started viewing the prosecutions as well as evidence with suspicion. The credibility of investigating agencies has to be salvaged by improving the standards of investigations. One way to improve the situation is to have more emphasis on scientific investigations by associating scientists in the investigations of serious cases so that through scientific investigations, the truth is tried to be discovered.

8. It has been seen that sometimes even in murder cases the blood of the accused or deceased is not properly lifted and preserved to be matched with blood found on articles like garments, weapon of offence etc. Finger prints are not tried to be lifted and matched with the finger prints of the accused in most of the cases. The clues available at the spot in the form of hair, skin particles, foot prints etc., are not collected and tested in all cases to discover the truth. In rape cases the semen and vagnal swabs are not matched with semen of the accused to fix his complicity. No efforts are made to do video recording of the dying declarations of the deceased. The Doctors posted in the Casualties and Emergency Wards of the Hospitals are not given proper orientation as to what important details should be recorded in the M.L.Cs. prepared by them. In many cases, the Doctors conducting post-mortems do not thoroughly examine the weapon of offence to match it with the injuries found on the person of the deeased. Proper arrangements are not yet there for prompt analysis of the Viscera etc. Recently this Court, while hearing a criminal appeal, was pointed out that the prosecution in spite of alleging that a letter, written by the deceased proves the motie of the accused to murder him, was not sent for testing of the handwriting of the deceased.

9. In nut-shell, it can be safely said that investigations even in serious criminal offences are still far from satisfactory. With a view to nail the real culprits and save victimization of innocents, radical improvements are required so that the faith of general public in criminal justice system is not eroded. Criminal investigation and trial is a journey to discover the truth. The conviction of an innocent or acquittal of a guilty is an inexcusable shame to the system.

10. Under the circumstances and for the reasons discussed above, it is ordered that in all the complaints/FIRs for the commission of offences of murder under Section 302 IPC, culpable homicide not amounting to murder under Section 304 IPC, death of a woman under suspicious circumstances within seven years of marriage under Section 304-B IPC, offence of rape under Section 376 IPC and decoity with murder punishable under Section 396 IPC, the following guidelines shall be followed :

(a) Upon receipt of a complaint or registration of FIR for any of the aforesaid offences, immediate steps shall be taken to associate a scientist from Forensic Science Laboratory or some other Laboratory or department in the investigations. The Investigating Officer shall conduct investigations on the points suggested by him also under his guidance and advice.

(b) To ensure that the complainant or victim of crime does not remain in dark about the investigations regarding his complaint/FIR, the complainant or victim shall be kept informed about the progress of investigations. In case the complainant gives anything in writing and requests the I.O., for investigations on any particular aspect of the matter, the same shall be adverted to by the I.O. Proper entries shall be made by I.O. in case diaries in regard to the steps taken on the basis of the request made by the complainant. The complainant, however, shall not be entitled to know the confidential matters, if any, the disclosure of which may jeopardize the investigations.

(c) Whenever the SDM/Magistrate is requested to record a dying declaration, video recording also shall be done with a view to obviate subsequent objections to the genuineness of the dying declaration.

(d) The investigations for the aforesaid offences shall be personally supervised by the ACP of the area. The concerned DCP shall also undertake fortnightly review thereof.

(e) The material prosecution witnesses cited in any of the aforesaid offences shall be ensured safety and protection by the SHO concerned, who shall personally attend to their complaints, if any.

(f) Orientation be given to the Doctors, who prepare MLCs or conduct post mortems to ensure that the MLCs as well as post mortem reports are up to the mark and stand judicial scrutiny in Courts.

11. The writ petition stands disposed of with the directions that the respondents No. 1 and 2 shall ensure that the aforesaid directions are immediately enforced and followed by all concerned.

12. Copies of this order be sent to respondents No. 1 and 2 immediately.