Chandigarh, Jul 16 (PTI) The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Wednesday transferred the investigation into the alleged assault of a colonel by Punjab Police personnel to the CBI and also pulled up the Chandigarh Police for trying to create “loopholes” and “craters” in the probe.
Justice Rajesh Bhardwaj directed Chandigarh Superintendent of Police Manjeet Sheoran, who was heading a special investigation team, to hand over the complete record of the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation.
The alleged incident took place on the intervening night of March 13 and 14 when Colonel Pushpinder Singh Bath and his son were having food at a roadside dhaba (eatery) in Patiala.
The petitioner in its fresh plea sought an independent probe preferably by the CBI into the matter, said his lawyer Deepinder Singh Virk.
On April 3, the high court marked the probe into the assault case to the Chandigarh Police and directed it to complete the investigation within four months.
“This Court had entrusted the investigation out of the State of Punjab so as to ensure an impartial investigation but the Court finds no change in the situation. Without completing the investigation, when the investigating agency has already deleted the offence under Section 109 BNS (Section 307 IPC), approach of the investigating agency is clear enough,” the court said in its order.
Stating that a free and fair investigation is the backbone of every criminal trial, the court observed that if the investigation itself is compromised, the trial before the court looses its sanctity. The supremacy of the law is independent of the status of the accused, it noted.
“From the overwhelming circumstances of the case, the court is convinced that the investigating agency is not only trying to create loopholes in the investigation, but trying to make craters in the investigation so as to ensure that once the chargesheet is filed before the court, the case of the prosecution should hardly be able to crawl in the court,” Justice Bhardwaj said.
The court said the purpose of the investigation is to bring out the truth and not to suppress the same.
“The success of the investigating agency is in collecting the best of the evidence and present the same before the court and not to fabricate the evidence and submit the hopeless chargesheet before the court so as to ensure that the court is left with no other option then to grant the benefit of doubt to the accused,” said the order.
A free and fair investigation is part of the Constitution enshrined under Article 21 of the Constitution, it said.
“Weighing the facts and circumstances of the present case on the anvil of law settled, this court finds that there are no prospects of free and fair investigation in the case by the Investigating Agency of UT, Chandigarh,” it said.
Justice Bhardwaj also quoted Lord Hewart, the then Chief Justice of England in the case of Rex vs. Sussex Justices, (1924), who laid down the dictum, ‘Justice must not only be done, but must also be seem to be done’.
“In the facts and circumstances of the present case, the court cannot be a mute spectator to the conduct of the investigating agency in conducting the investigation in a tainted manner,” the court said, adding that “hence, the investigation of the case is withdrawn from UT, Chandigarh with immediate effect.
Investigation of the case is handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation, it said.
The court stated that so far progress in the investigation is concerned, except saying that the investigation is in progress, there is no material to convince the court that the investigation is being carried out in a free and fair manner.
“Time limit of four months granted by this court is almost over. Without concluding the investigation, the investigating agency has already made up its mind to delete the offence under Section 109 BNS, which substantiate the apprehension of the petitioner that the investigating agency is proceeding in a tainted manner to give benefit to the accused,” it observed.
Needless to say that other offences in the FIR are also non-bailable, but the investigating agency has no answer regarding its conduct in not proceeding against the accused, said the court.
“The only answer given to the court is that all the accused are not traceable. The court cannot lose the sight that all the accused are serving police officials. The court is conscious of the fact that how and in what manner a probe is to be conducted, would lie in the domain of the investigating agency.
“However, to ensure a free and fair investigation, lies within the domain of the court,” it said.
Appearing for the Chandigarh Police, counsel Manish Bansal opposed the petitioner’s submissions and brought to the attention of the court about steps taken in conducting the probe.
Bansal submitted that raids were conducted to arrest Ronnie Singh, one of the accused, after dismissal of his anticipatory bail but he could not be apprehended.
The petitioner submitted that the Chandigarh Police had “failed” to conduct a free and fair investigation in the case.
Meanwhile, speaking to the media, Bath’s wife Jasvinder Kaur Bath said she was happy over the court direction for giving the probe to the CBI.
She said she has been fighting for justice. “I have been fighting for justice for 120 days. I am exhausted but I will not give up until they (accused Punjab police personnel) get punishment,” said Kaur after the hearing.
Kaur accused the Chandigarh Police of its inaction in the matter, alleging that the UT police came under pressure of the Punjab Police.
She further alleged that the Chandigarh Police was trying to drop the non-bailable charges in the matter instead of arresting the accused.
She said the court during the hearing reprimanded the Chandigarh Police for not carrying out a fair probe.
Colonel Bath had accused 12 Punjab Police personnel of assaulting him and his son over the parking dispute and sought a transfer of the probe to an independent agency, preferably the CBI.
He alleged that the assailants — four inspector-rank officers of the Punjab Police and their armed subordinates — attacked him and his son without provocation, snatched his ID card and mobile phone, and threatened him with a “fake encounter”, all in public view and under CCTV camera coverage.
Before the probe was handed over to the Chandigarh Police, Bath had alleged that a fair investigation was impossible under the Punjab Police. PTI CHS KVK KVK
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