NEW DELHI, Aug 6:
A city court has asked the Delhi Police Commissioner to take action against an erring official for manipulating the facts of a robbery case, saying it has become the “tendency” of investigating officers to project their own versions of the incident instead of the actual one.
The court gave the order while sentencing a man to seven years in jail and imposing a fine of Rs 10,000 for robbing a woman by causing her injuries with an intention to kill her.
Irked over the distortion of facts by IO, due to which an accused took benefit during the trial, Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Virender Bhat also asked the police commissioner and the deputy police commissioner (South West) to sensitise them so that they could give an undistorted version to the court.
“It is not understandable as to how such tendency has developed in police officials, who are given the charge of investigating a case and why the IOs, more often, project their own version of the case before the court instead of what has actually happened, as narrated to them by the witnesses.
“I feel time has come that such tendency of manipulating the circumstances in which the offence has taken place, resorted to by the IOs, needs to be checked,” the judge said.
The court passed the order while sentencing Punjab native Sukhvinder for robbing a woman in Dwarka area last year in broad daylight and stabbing her when she resisted the act.
The court held that IO Assistant Sub Inspector Rajender Singh manipulated the facts saying that he had recovered a ladies purse and a kitchen knife from Sukhvinder when he was undergoing treatment in the hospital.
It said IO’s statement was contrary to the deposition by eye witness Lalita who had deposed that she had handed over the purse to victim Poonam and had also found a kitchen knife lying at the spot after which she handed it over to the police official.
The court held that the testimony of the eye witness was “trustworthy” and the IO had manipulated the facts of the case.
“In my opinion, this contradiction has come up in this case only on account of over-ambition and over-zeal of the investigating officer, who wanted to project that he recovered the incriminating articles from the search of the accused, disregarding the statements given to him by the witnesses.
“This demonstrates how the police, often for certain obvious reasons, ignores the real circumstances in which the offence has taken place and presents a distorted version of the facts, of which the accused tend to take advantage and invariably are acquitted,” the judge said.
The incident had taken place in September last year when victim Poonam was returning home in Dwarka from her work place and Sukhvinder started following her.
Poonam told the court that when she reached near Apoorva Apartment, she was talking on her mobile phone and the accused snatched her phone but when she resisted, he stabbed her on right hand.
Sukhvinder then ran away with her mobile phone and purse containing Rs 360 and after she raised alarm, he was caught by the passersby who began beating him.
The police was called subsequently and the victim and the accused were taken to a hospital. (PTI)
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