Take action against ‘incompetent’ officers, HC tells police

Taking a strict view of the “serious lapses” committed by investigating agencies, the Delhi High Court on Thursday directed the Delhi Police to take departmental action against officers investigating a case, in which the accused had to be let off due to lack of evidence.

“In many cases, the court also feels helpless where such serious lapses are committed by the investigating agencies in not carrying out its most solemn duty of conducting fair, honest, flawless and scientific investigation into any crime… the ultimate result of this is the acquittal of criminals, which increases the rate of acquittals and results in multiplication of crimes in society. All such erring police officers, who are responsible and who become the cause for failure in any prosecution case on account of their sheer negligence or culpable lapses or incompetence, must suffer departmental action,” the court of Justice Kailash Gambhir and Justice Sunita Gupta said.

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The notice was issued in a case of attempted robbery, where the accused had entered the house on the pretext of delivering sweets, then beaten and tied up a woman to get his hands on valuables.

The accused, Ashok Jain, was interrupted when the woman’s nephew got home and broke down the main door. The accused was arrested from a nearby tea godown, where had had been hiding. However, because of lapses in police investigation, the trial court had to acquit Jain in spite of the woman’s testimony.

“With the kind of investigation as has been carried out in this case, we have no hesitation in saying that this police officer has no basic knowledge or competence for conducting investigation in any crime.. and due to this reason alone, he made no efforts to seize the box of sweets, which was brought by the accused…,” the High court said.