Punjab and Haryana High Court transfers Col Bath assault case to CBI

Finding that the Chandigarh Police was “not only trying to create loopholes in the investigation, but trying to make craters,” the Punjab and Haryana High Court has transferred the probe into the assault case of serving Army officer Colonel Pushpinder Singh Bath to the Central Bureau of Investigation.

“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 charge-sheet before the court so as to ensure that the court is left with no other option than to grant the benefit of doubt to the accused,” Justice Rajesh Bhardwaj asserted.

The court was dealing with allegations that the investigation into Col Bath’s assault had been manipulated to shield police officials accused of assaulting the officer and his son during the intervening night of March 13 and 14. The FIR was registered only on March 22, though another FIR dated March 15 was already lodged at the behest of a dhaba owner, allegedly to favour the police personnel involved.

Observing that “without concluding the investigation, the investigating agency has already made up its mind to delete the offence under Section 109 BNS (Section 307 IPC regarding attempt to murder),” the court asserted that this substantiated the apprehension that the agency was “proceeding in a tainted manner to give benefit to the accused”.

“The court cannot lose sight that all the accused are serving police officials...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," Justice Bhardwaj asserted.

Finding that there were “no prospects of free and fair investigation in the case by the investigating agency of UT, Chandigarh”, the High Court concluded: “The court cannot be a moot spectator to the conduct of the investigating agency in conducting the investigation in a tainted manner. Hence, the investigation of the case is withdrawn from UT, Chandigarh, with immediate effect. Hereinafter, the investigation of the case is handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation.”

The court also noted that despite multiple injuries suffered by Col Bath and his son, there was no explanation for the delay of eight days in lodging the FIR, and the Chandigarh Police had no convincing material to show it was proceeding with a fair investigation. The police had only responded that the accused officers were “not traceable”.