Court orders probe against policeman for delaying probe

A court has ordered a probe against a Delhi Police official for delay in filing an investigation report in an accident case allegedly involving a minor offender, who was let off by Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) here.
Additional Sessions Judge Virender Bhatt, while seeking a report from the police on the matter, also said the delay in lodging of the preliminary investigation report (PIR) on part of the Investigating Officer (IO) caused "injustice to the complainant" because the juvenile offender was let off without any inquiry.
The judge also said the JJB should have summoned the IO to ascertain the reason for the delay in filing the PIR.

The order came on the plea of a woman against the JJB order which had let off a juvenile offender, whose rash driving had caused the death of her relative in 2013.
"The delay committed by the IO in submitting the FIR is very material which has definitely caused injustice to the complainant for the reason that the juvenile in conflict with law, against whom the accusations have been laid, had to be set free without any inquiry," the judge said.
The court also said that it needs to be enquired as to why the IO did not submit the PIR within the requisite time of three months after registration of the FIR.

"A copy of this order be sent to the DCP South West with the direction to make inquiry in this regard and to proceed further against the erring investigating officer if it comes to the knowledge that he had delayed the filing of PIR before the Board for some extraneous reasons or had been negligent in performance of his duties.

"The DCP shall submit his report to this court within a period of one month," the judge said.
The court, however, upheld the order of the JJB which had refused to take cognisance of offences against the juvenile saying, "Admittedly, the respondent 2 was minor at the time of commission of offence. He is alleged to have committed the offences involved in the present case on November 3, 2013."

"The PIR has been filed before the JJB on August 13, 2014 i.E. Much after the expiry of the period of three months from the date of lodging of the first information report (FIR)," it said.