High Court raps SIT for Murthal case probe

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 19

The Punjab and Haryana High Court today virtually blamed the special investigating team (SIT) for the way it was proceeding in the Murthal rape case before directing the trial court not to frame charges in the matter. The stay order will remain in operation till the case comes up for resumed hearing before the High Court in February-end.

The rap came after Justice SS Saron and Justice Darshan Singh took note of the SIT’s apparent departure from the standard procedure of investigation carried out by the police. The Bench specifically took exception to the use word “delete” by the SIT before the trial court and the High Court.

It was of the opinion that “delete” gave the impression that the gang rape charge had been dropped while the SIT’s stand before the Bench was that it was very much in existence. Only, five accused arrested in the case were not being proceeded against for the offence.

The Bench was also visibly miffed over the fact that the SIT got the statement of witness Raj Kumar recorded before the magistrate after the filing of a challan six months after it was initially penned down by the police.

As the case came up for resumed hearing, the Bench observed the SIT’s stand before the High Court was that Section 376-D on gang rape had not been deleted while an Additional Sessions Judge hearing the matter was given the impression that it had been dropped. “You are saying that 376 (rape) is not ruled out but your challan or the final investigation report does not mention the challan,” the Bench asserted.

Responding to the assertion, Haryana Additional Advocate-General Pawan Girdhar asserted it was never deleted from the FIR. As there was no evidence of offence under 376-D against the accused, the section stood deleted only against them in the supplementary challan.

The amicus curiae or the friend of the court Anupam Gupta, on the other hand, asserted that the trial judge’s order clearly quoted the public prosecutor as saying that Section 376-D and 365 stood deleted. “If he said it on his own, disciplinary action should be initiated against him,” Gupta asserted.

He also told the court that two of the accused were bailed out by the High Court on the ground of deletion of the offence. “The effort was to hold out to the entire world that the offence of rape was no longer valid,” he said.

Referring to the statement of a witness, Gupta said the police magically appeared at Murthal. “Let their call details be examined. Why did the IGP and SSP arrive at dead of night? It cries for an answer,” he asserted. “The case must go to the CBI.”

Taking note of the assertions, the Bench observed the challan was filed against the five arrested accused on August 11 last year. But the supplementary challan filed in October mentioned Section 376-D and 365 stood deleted.

The impression given in the supplementary challan was that the charge under Sections 375-D and 365 had been dropped. The Bench also took note of the submission that an affidavit would be filed before the trial court for clarifying the situation that allegations under the two sections had not been dropped and would continue. In order to carry out effective investigation, the state would not proceed with the framing of charges.