Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Gujarat Police to complete its investigation within six weeks in a 20-year-old criminal complaint involving allegations of forgery and cheating in revenue records. The court observed that constitutional courts cannot remain mute spectators when confronted with cases involving inordinately prolonged investigations.
A bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and Augustine George Masih said there had been an inordinate delay in the investigation and observed that the right to a speedy trial is intrinsically linked to Article 21 of the Constitution, reported news agency PTI. The court said the delay in the present case was a matter of serious concern.
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The complaint was filed by a man before the Judicial Magistrate, Bhiloda, against four individuals under Sections 120B, 406, 420 and 463 of the Indian Penal Code, dealing with criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust, cheating and forgery. According to the complaint, the property in question had been self-acquired by him in 1975.
He alleged that while he was on Haj pilgrimage from February 5, 2002 to March 21, 2002, the accused forged his signature and prepared a forged partition deed along with a bogus sale deed in relation to the property. On the basis of the alleged forgery, their names were entered in the revenue records.
The court noted that in 2014, the police submitted a report before the judicial magistrate, but it was rejected and further investigation was ordered to be completed within 60 days.
It further recorded that in 2017, the Gujarat High Court directed that the investigation report be prepared within six weeks, while also noting that some material collected during the investigation had gone missing from the custody of the police station concerned.
In its judgment, the Supreme Court said the high court should have taken note of the inordinate delay in filing the charge sheet and intervened. “In the present factual matrix, nearly two decades have passed since the initiation of the complaint by the original complainant.
“However, it is a matter of serious concern that, despite the lapse of such an inordinate period of time, the investigation is yet to reach any meaningful conclusion,” the bench said.
“From a bare perusal of the record, it is evident that the original complainant had run from pillar to post, for filing of a charge sheet in connection with his complaint, but to no avail,” it added.
The bench said it was incumbent upon constitutional courts not to remain mute spectators when such prolonged investigations were brought to their notice. “Therefore, in such peculiar circumstances, the High Court ought to have exercised its extraordinary jurisdiction to intervene in the present matter,” it said.
The court also said instances in which case records are lost during an active investigation must be treated with the utmost seriousness, adding that such incidents strike at the very core of the criminal justice system and render bona fide complaints unactionable.
The Supreme Court directed the Gujarat Police to conclude the investigation within six weeks from Thursday and file an appropriate report before the JMFC along with all investigative material. It also directed the Gujarat government to file an affidavit setting out the specific action taken against the officer involved, the stage of that action, and whether it had been taken to its logical conclusion.
– Ends
Inputs from PTI
SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
