Saurabh Malik
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, September 29
In an embarrassment for the Punjab Police, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has ordered a de novo or fresh investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in a drugs case after taking into consideration the contentions of the counsel for the accused that the state agencies usually tried and protect their own officials in such matters.
The direction by Justice Amol Rattan Singh came on two petitions filed against the state of Punjab and other respondents by Upashu Garg and another petitioner through counsel Ishan Gupta and Arjunveer Sharma. One of the petitioners was seeking reinvestigation by an independent agency into an FIR registered under the provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act on February 22, 2020, at the Sadar police station in Dhuri. Directions were also sought to direct the investigating agency to scientifically probe “the peculiar aspects and prevalent facts and circumstances of the entire case”.
Referring to a photograph of three men, Gupta, during the course of hearing, submitted that an SSP in his affidavit stated that the persons in the snap were not identified by the SHO concerned as two police officials from the same police station. Gupta, however, submitted that even the rear profiles of the persons in the CCTV footage showed they were actually police officials with the petitioner in between. The time recorded was 8.35.19 pm on February 22, 2020 — the day the petitioner was apprehended. But the time of apprehending them was shown to be after 10.10 pm in the FIR.
Justice Amol Rattan Singh observed the counsel for the petitioners had specifically submitted that verification of the profiles of the three persons in the photograph by an independent agency would reveal that the petitioner was with the two police officials on either side. The photograph showed the time to be 8.35.19 pm and definitely not after 10.10 pm, when a secret informer allegedly came out with information that the petitioner was selling intoxicating drugs.
Justice Amol Rattan Singh asserted it would be appropriate in his opinion to order de novo investigation, adding the court may have been inclined to direct investigation by the Punjab Bureau of Investigation, but the counsel had, perhaps, correctly pointed out the state agencies were usually seen trying to protect their own officials in drug cases. Even though investigation in every single drug-related case could not be entrusted to the CBI, the case in hand was one where it should be handed over to it. “The trial court is directed to stay proceedings till the next date of hearing, with de novo investigation ordered by this court, to be conducted by the CBI,” Justice Amol Rattan Singh added.
FIR filed in 2020 at Dhuri
The direction by Justice Amol Rattan Singh came on two petitions filed against the state of Punjab and other respondents. One of the petitioners was seeking reinvestigation by an independent agency into an FIR registered under the provisions of the NDPS Act on February 22, 2020, at the Sadar police station in Dhuri.
Punjab and Haryana High Court orders CBI probe in drugs case
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