Accused entitled to ask for ‘un-relied’ upon documents, says High Court

Chandigarh, May 9

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has made it clear that an accused is entitled to ask for ‘un-relied’ upon documents collected by the investigating agency during the course of probe but not intended to be relied upon during the course of trial and, as such, not part of the challan or the final investigation report under Section 173 of the CrPC.

Justice Gurvinder Singh Gill also made it clear that the Magistrate concerned would be obliged to furnish copies of the same, unless specific case for exclusion was made out. The assertion came as the Bench directed the prosecution to furnish complete set of documents filed by it in the Sippy Sidhu murder case, along with the ‘untraced report’, including the statements of witnesses recorded under Section 161 of the CrPC.

Justice Gill was hearing a plea against the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed by Kalyani Singh through counsel Sartej Singh Narula, Harish Mehla and Sandeep Sharma. Referring to some of the documents lying sealed in the court, Justice Gill asserted the prosecution would move appropriate application before the trial court for unsealing the same so as to supply the copies of such record immediately to the accused. In case any other record of investigation conducted by the Chandigarh Police was lying with CBI, the copies would also be furnished to the accused.

Justice Gill also made it clear that an accused could apply for and would be furnished copies of ‘un-relied’ upon documents immediately after the presentation of challan before the framing of charges. The Bench added the copies of all such documents collected in evidence by the first investigating agency could not be withheld and “were required to be dealt with in the same manner as if the same were collected by the second investigating agency, which presented final report under Section 173 of the CrPC”.

Justice Gill was also of the view that there was no justification for withholding complete data/electronic evidence retrieved from electronic/digital devices of the deceased. Directions were also issued for setting aside the impugned orders inasmuch as these pertained to denying the petitioner of the right to get complete set of documents filed by prosecution along with the ‘untraced report’, including statements of witnesses recorded under Section 161 of the CrPC. The impugned order also denied complete copies of electronic data retrieved from mobile phone, laptop and CDs seized by the police during investigation either by the Chandigarh Police or by the CBI.