The High Court of Punjab and Haryana has ruled that interrogation of an accused is a statutory right of Police & cannot be substituted by video conference.
The High Court issued the order on 2 pleas filed by gangster Lawrence Bishnoi who sought directions for the Police, including one that said that his life be secured, in the backdrop of the death of criminal Vikas Dubey in an encounter with Uttar Pradesh police.
Lawrence Bishnoi had moved the High Court as he was wanted by Chandigarh & Haryana Police for interrogation in a number of cases.
Chandigarh Police want to question him in connection with 2 incidents of shooting in Sectors 9 & 33. The cops also suspect his role in other firing incidents & crimes in the Union territory. In Haryana, the Police registered a murder case against him at Dabwali in Sirsa district on July 21.
Bishnoi, who is lodged in Central Jail, Jodhpur, had urged that his physical presence for investigation of the FIRs be dispensed with, or he be interrogated through video conferencing or handcuffed if he was required to be taken out of the jail.
Dismissing the 2 pleas, Justice Gurvinder Singh Gill of the High Court of Punjab & Haryana — in his 11-page judgment made available on Tuesday — said interrogation over video conferencing was not possible as the investigator/interrogator would be unable to record the accused’s demeanour & read his psyche as it would be impossible to assess veracity of answers by the way an “accused blinks his eyes or sighs or moves his feet.”
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