Court raps police for delay in murder case

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 9

Haryana Police would certainly have a lot to explain, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has asserted while dealing with a plea in a murder case.

The assertion came after the Bench noticed that statements of four witnesses were recorded after about three years of the occurrence and that too after initially consigning the case as untraced.

The matter was placed before Justice Gurvinder Singh Gill after accused Munish filed a petition against the state of Haryana for grant of regular bail in a case registered for murder and other offences against him on April 30, 2018, at Titram police station in Kaithal under Sections 302, 201 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code.

The complainant had alleged that his younger brother usually slept in a room in their fields after going there for farming. He would return in the morning for milking the buffaloes. But on April 30, 2018, he did not return. The complainant’s son, sent to the fields to look for him, returned and told them that the victim was hanging from a guava tree.

Justice Gill asserted there was no eyewitness to the occurrence and that the prosecution was relying solely on circumstantial evidence. Although the case was initially consigned as untraced, the statements of four co-villagers were recorded after about three years of the occurrence.

The villagers stated they had seen the petitioner going towards the victim’s fields on the night of the occurrence.

“The police would certainly have a lot to explain as to why the statements were not recorded earlier though the witnesses are residents of the same village. As far as the medical evidence is concerned, it will certainly be debatable as to whether it is a case of suicide or a case of hanging,” Justice Gill asserted.

Before parting with the order, Justice Gill added the ‘last-seen’ evidence in the shape of the statements was required to be examined and scrutinised minutely for its authenticity in context of the other evidence, which may be led by the prosecution.

Allowing the regular bail plea, Justice Gill added the challan stood presented and the case was mainly based on circumstantial evidence. In the court’s opinion, it was a fit case for grant of bail.

Statements recorded after 3 years

The assertion came after the Bench noticed that statements of four witnesses were recorded after about three years of the occurrence and that too after initially consigning the case as untraced

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