In a 2019 case of suicide by a married woman, the Bombay High Court has directed the Thane Commissioner of Police to conduct an inquiry and fix responsibility for “lapses” in probe for alleged abetment. The chargesheet in the case was filed hastily against the husband. The court observed that prima facie it was a case of “negligence in performance of duty (by police), which borders on dereliction of duty”.
A division bench of Justices Sunil Shukre and Abhay Waghwase has also directed the Crime Branch, Thane, to conduct further probe into the case registered with Chitalsar Manpada police station. The Crime Branch has to file a supplementary chargesheet and also submit a report to the court.
Victim's mother had sought transfer of probe to CID
The HC was hearing a petition filed by the victim's mother, through advocate Sadhana Singh, seeking to transfer the probe from local police to the State Crime Investigation Department (CID).
Her plea alleges that on June 6 last year, her daughter was harassed and brutally beaten by her husband who wanted more gold and to buy a house. She had alleged that her daughter was killed. Instead of catching the real culprit, the police booked her ex-boyfriend to tarnish her image. The chargesheet was filed in August 2019.
The judges noted that the post-mortem report did not give any opinion on the plausible cause of death. Even the chemical analyser’s report received in Oct 2019 stated that no poison was detected in the viscera. The court said the chargesheet leaves many questions unanswered and ignored important aspects of the case.
Court slams investigating officer
Coming down heavily on the investigating officer (IO), the court said, “He did not pursue the issue with the doctor concerned and the result is that it is not known under what circumstances and in what manner the deceased met her unfortunate death.”
The judges even questioned the basis on which the IO filed charge-sheet under section 306 of the IPC against the accused for abetting the woman’s suicide.
