Court raps Delhi Police for "tawdry" probe in murder case

A city court has rapped the Delhi Police for shoddy probe in a murder case saying it was "sad" that those responsible for the gruesome killing of a young boy were going unpunished.
The court made the sharp observation while acquitting two persons accused of slitting the throat of a 20-year-old boy, noting that the testimony of the lone witness, who had claimed to have seen the accused, was made five months after the alleged incident.
It said the statements, recovery of weapon and other chain of circumstances could not be established and the motive of the accused was also absent.

"Prosecution has failed to establish not just complete chain of circumstances, even the circumstances tried to be established could not be cogently and firmly established.
"It is indeed sad that such a gruesome murder of a young boy is going unpunished on account of such a tawdry investigation. But the courts have to be phlegm to emotions while deciding whether prosecution has been able to walk the distance between 'may be true' and 'must be true',"
District and Sessions Judge Girish Kathpalia said.

"In the present case, there is not even a whisper of evidence related to motive ascribed to the accused persons to kill the victim," the judge said.

The court observed that the arrest was based on the statement of a man, a solitary witness, recorded five months after the alleged incident of January 14, 2013.
It noted that the witness had claimed to have seen the accused with the victim at the Peer Baba dargah in south Delhi, but failed to identify them before the court.
"Examination of... (witness) by the Investigating Officer months after the incident creates reasonable doubt about genuineness of this witness," the court said.
According to the prosecution, on January 14, 2013 the police had received information that a 20-year-old boy was lying dead with his throat slit at the dargah in Jaitpur. His body was identified by his father.

Five months later, a man told the police that he had seen the victim with three boys at the dargah, the police said, adding when the victim asked the boys not to consume alcohol at a pious place, they misbehaved with him and killed him.
Based on this, two persons and a juvenile were arrested for the offences of murder and criminal conspiracy under IPC.
The accused juvenile was, however, acquitted by a Juvenile Justice Board.
During the trial, the accused denied the allegations and claimed they were falsely implicated and illegally questioned.
The court, while pointing out the loopholes in police's version, said that as per the prosecution case, he was last seen by the sole witness at 10 pm on January 13, 2013 but as per post-mortem report, his death occurred at about 3.45 pm, "which goes totally contrary to the entire prosecution case."

Regarding the recovery of the knife which was allegedly used to slit the victim's throat from two feet under the ground, the court said "One wonders why after committing murder, the accused would dig soil by about 2 feet, put the knife there and cover the ground instead of conveniently throwing it away in the the drain flowing near the spot.