Agra: A man, along with his brother and father, has been sentenced to death for killing his wife and his cousin in 2022, in what a local court called a “rarest of rare” case, while also ordering action against two senior police officers for alleged evidence tampering during the probe.
Additional District Judge Amarjeet Singh directed that a separate case be registered against the two officers—Chhatta police station SHO Vinod Kumar and Investigating Officer ACP Sukanya Sharma—and an inquiry conducted at the level of a principal secretary-grade official.
The investing officers allegedly replaced the pen drive containing crucial CCTV footage with a blank one in the evidence submitted before the court, in an attempt to derail proceedings. The court called their actions a mockery of the judicial process.
The double murder incident happened on 27 May 2022, and police identified those killed as Pooja (then 26) and her husband Gaurav’s maternal cousin Shivam (then 22).
Pooja’s mother Indra Devi told ThePrint that Gaurav’s father Madan and brother Abhishek attacked Pooja and Shivam with sticks and sharp weapons, killing them in less than a minute.
She said Pooja was married to Gaurav and used to make YouTube videos with him and his cousin Shivam. But Gaurav suspected that she had an affair with Shivam, and that is why they decided to kill the two.
The incident was captured on a neighbour’s CCTV camera, which showed the assailants chasing Shivam before killing him.
The investigation was conducted by Vinod Kumar and Sukanya Sharma at that time. The court has found both officials prima facie guilty of mishandling the investigation and tampering with evidence, and ordered a separate case against both.
The CCTV footage was treated as primary evidence in the case. However, when the chargesheet was filed on 23 August 2022, the pen drive submitted in a sealed envelope was found to be empty.
The court then ordered the Agra police commissioner to conduct an inquiry, which found that the original pen drive had not been sealed and had been replaced with a blank one. Following court directions, the footage was obtained again from the neighbour’s CCTV, which ultimately led to the conviction.
In his judgment, the ADJ noted that investigating officers are vested with wide powers to ensure the real culprit is brought to justice. However, he said that deliberately misplacing key digital evidence such as live video recordings could result in decisive evidence being lost, potentially shielding the accused.
This act of the investigating officer is not only a breach of trust with his own duties, but it appears that the officer went beyond limits to protect the accused from being convicted. This makes the investigating officers themselves accused in this case, said the judge.
The police counsel objected to the court action against them, claiming that pen drive had been provided to the court in a sealed envelope and at that time the inquiry officer was the ACP herself, so there was no possibility of it being changed at her level.
A fresh inquiry should be conducted into the circumstances in which the pen drive was allegedly tampered with, he said.
The court also noted that the call details of Pooja’s phone were not obtained during the probe despite it being an important evidence in the case, as it was alleged that Pooja had called Shivam to meet her at home, but without the call details, there was no evidence of such a call being made.
Reacting to the judgment, Shivam’s brother Abhishek Sisodia said the family felt a sense of justice. He added that the shock of Shivam’s murder had led to the death of their father, Harveer Singh, eight months later. Sisodia said he would pursue the case if the convicts appeal against the verdict in the High Court.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
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