Delhi court pulls up Delhi Police for filing two contrary chargesheets

A Delhi court has summoned the DCP Southeast and asked the Commissioner of Police to take action against officers who filed two distinct chargesheets in the rape case of a minor girl (State v Shawez).

. While the charge sheet submitted in the court and given to defense counsel blamed one Shawez for the crime, the one given to the public prosecutor and the victim’s family cleared his name and put the responsibility on a person named Umer.

Additional Sessions Judge (POCSO) South East, Saket Courts, Gaurav Rao, said that the act is a slap on the Delhi Police logo of “Shanti, Seva, Nyay” as the word Nyay (Justice) has been taken for a ride, twisted and warped as per these officers' whims and fancies.

“If this continues, and the officials are not dealt with sternly, the public shall lose their faith in the police system. They not only have mocked the court/judicial system but also abused their power qua the people they have pledged to serve and protect,” ASJ Rao wrote in his order.

. Earlier this month, while hearing the same case, the court had noted this and called the Police’s act a ‘treachery of the highest order’ while directing the DCP to submit a reply.

The DCP told the court that the other charge sheet was before correction and also present in the police file “which was inadvertently given to the complainant” and the act was without any malafide intentions.

The Judge however has said that malafide on the part of the officials is writ large in the present case as the court has been misled which is deliberate and intentional.

“There cannot be any question of the draft charge sheet or the charge sheet which was yet to be corrected as both the sets of charge sheets bear the signature of the concerned officials of the same day/date. I am not inclined to believe that on the same day the charge sheet was corrected/amended and signed and both sets of the charge sheets were filed in the court. Moreover the soft copy/CD/e-challan is different from the charge sheet/hard copy filed in the court,” the court said.

. The court noted the fact that the DCP failed to justify the omission of two complete paragraphs running into 20-25 lines from the charge sheet. These paragraphs gave a clean chit to the accused and fixed the responsibility on a different individual whose name was completely deleted from the charge sheet filed in the court.

“How can the said action be justified and what more is required to hold that it was deliberate, motivated and malafide,” the Judge asked.

Shawez had been arrested by the police on 25 March under IPC Sections 363 (kidnapping), 376 (rape), 366 (abducting or inducing woman to compel her marriage) and slSections 342 (wrongful confinement) and 506 (criminal intimation) as well as provisions of the POCSO Act for allegedly keeping a minor in captivity for six days and raping her.

The Court, however, termed the entire investigation a mockery as statements of private persons recorded by the prosecution and arrayed as witnesses gave a clean chit to the accused.

“Undoubtedly investigation is the sole prerogative of the police officials but it is expected that the investigation shall be concluded by them in an absolutely fair, honest and transparent manner and the same should not be motivated or malafide,” the Court noted.

The Court has directed its order to be placed before the Commissioner of Police while adding that the court expects an honest investigation will be ordered by the DCP and a report will be filed in the court at the earliest as well. The matter has now been listed on Wednesday.

. [Read Order]

Delhi court pulls up Delhi Police for filing two contrary chargesheets

Prashant Jha

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