Delhi court orders action against Delhi Police officer over false report, shoddy probe

A Delhi court on Friday ordered departmental action against an Investigating Officer (IO) on finding that he had not properly investigated a criminal case and had filed a false report to mislead the court [State Vs. Mustakeem].

Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Tushar Gupta posted at a Karkardooma court passed the order, which reads,

"This court deems fit to issue notice to the Joint Commissioner of Police to take appropriate action against the IO for filing a false report in the present case... and not investigating the case properly, and file (a) compliance report."

A compliance report indicating the action taken against the errant police officer is to be filed by November 3, when the court is slated to hear the matter next.

The court also directed action against the Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) and the Station House Officer (SHO) concerned for supervisory lapses on their part.

The court was hearing a bail application by a man named Mustakeem, who allegedly got embroiled in a gun fight that broke out between two groups.

Mustakeem claimed that he was falsely implicated after he went to the police to lodge a criminal complaint against 6-7 assailants who attacked him and his family.

The police eventually registered a first information report (FIR) in the matter on a complaint by Mustakeem's father.

However, it also registered a cross-FIR on a complaint by another man, who accused Mustakeem of firing a shot outside his (the complainant's) house. The State told the Court that the gun firing incident took place after a fight broke out between Mustakeem and the complainant.

The IO claimed that he had arrested Mustakeem on the basis of information given by a secret informer,

However, the Court noted that there was CCTV footage to show that Mustakeem himself had gone to the police station to file a complaint. This was also confirmed by the IO himself when the court posed a query to him during the bail hearing.

"Thus, it can very well be said that the IO has filed a false report in this matter to mislead the court," the court remarked.

It further found that the IO did not add relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (BNS) in the FIR registered on the complaint by Mustakeem's father.

"From the perusal of the record, it can be seen that the father of the accused was badly injured by the complainant and the other assailants, despite (this), appropriate sections have not been added by the police in the FIR lodged by the father of the accused," the court noted.

The court also observed that the facts narrated in the original complaint filed by Mustakeem's father and the FIR finally registered by the police were not the same. 

Moreover, the court observed that the parties accused in the FIR lodged by Mustakeem's father were not arrested, whereas Mustakeem was arrested for similar allegations when he approached the police.

The court concluded that the investigation in these matters was not conducted properly.

The court added that these factors would have ordinarily led it to grant the accused bail. However, it went on to note that there were serious allegations against Mustakeem. In CCTV footage, Mustakeem was seen running with a desi katta (country-made firearm) in his hand near the house of the complainant. 

In view of this, given the seriousness of the allegations against Mustakeem, the court rejected his bail application. 

Additional Public Prosecutor Kamal Kapoor appeared for the State.

Advocate Javed Ali appeared for the accused.

[Read order]