A Delhi Court has pulled up the Delhi Police, observing that in a “large number of cases of riots, the standard of investigation is very poor” and that the police was filing “half-baked chargesheets” in such cases.
The observations of Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Yadav came in an order framing rioting and other charges against accused Ashraf Ali and other another accused Parvez.
The order on framing of charges stated,
2. “It is noticed that after filing the half-baked chargesheets in Court, the police hardly bothers about taking the investigation to a logical end. The accused persons, who have been roped in multiple cases continue to languish in jails as a consequence thereof.”
Therefore, the Court said it was “high time” that the Deputy Commissioner of Police, North-East district, and other higher officers concerned took notice of its observations for immediate remedial action required in the matters.
It was suggested that the senior police officials were free to seek the assistance of experts in this regard, or else there was a likelihood of injustice being caused to the persons involved in these cases.
The Court had earlier lamented,
“It is really painful to note here that a large number of cases of riots have been pending consideration on charge before this Court and in majority of cases the IOs have not been appearing in Court, either physically or through video-conferencing at the time of consideration on charge.”
The Court stated that it was made to understand that the investigating officers (IOs) in such cases had not been briefing the Special Public Prosecutors (SPPs) for arguments on charge.
“In the morning of the date of hearing on charge, they simply e-mail the pdf of the chargesheet to the learned Special PP and leave it upon him to argue the matter on charge as it is, without giving him an opportunity to go deep into the facts and the investigation conducted in the matter,” it pointed out.
Judge Yadav further noted that it was “painful” that in a large number of such cases, the standard of investigation was very poor, as after the chargesheet was filed in Court, neither the IO nor the Station House Officer (SHO) or for that matter the supervising officers bothered to see what other material was required to be collected from the appropriate authority in the matters.
