Court unhappy with probe, asks Sr cops to improve functioning

Irked over the poor probe conducted by Delhi Police in a robbery case, a court here has asked senior police authorities to look into the matter and work on improving its functioning and image.
The court's direction came while acquitting three men in a robbery case after the victim said the robbed articles were of gold and recovered items did not belong to her and were fake.
District Judge J R Aryan noted in the judgement that the investigating officer (IO) of the case had claimed that he had recovered four rings and four earrings from the accused but when the property was produced in court, one ring was missing.

"This court considers that senior police authorities need to take a proper supervision and control of the investigating officer. Not only that IO claimed that he recovered four rings and four earrings but when property produced in court it was found comprising only three rings and four earrings.
"It was a serious matter as to how a sealed cloth parcel prepared by the IO on the spot of recovery came to be tampered and one ring was found missing," the court said.
The court said it was also a serious matter that stolen jewellery was stated to be gold and there was no reason to disbelieve the victim, but recovered articles were not made of gold.

"Senior police authorities to look into all aspects and examine as to how the IO and police authorities can improve its functioning and image," the judge said.

During the proceedings, the victim woman and her daughter had deposed that none of the three accused were amongst the culprits and the articles as claimed to be recovered by police in the case did not belong to them and were not made up of gold.
The court acquitted Yameen, Imran and Mustkeem of the charges of causing hurt and attempting to cause death while committing robbery and dishonestly receiving stolen property.
According to the police, the three accused and another person who was declared a proclaimed offender, had committed robbery in Geeta Sharma's Brijpuri residence in north east Delhi on October 24, 2005 and had robbed several gold articles. They were armed with country-made pistols and razors, it said.

The complainant had deposed in the court that gold jewellery including four bangles, four pairs of earrings, two chains and six rings, and silver articles including coins and mangalsutra were taken away by the robbers at the time of the incident.
The judge stopped the trial proceedings after recording the statement of the IO and said, "I found that examination of further police constables who had joined the IO was of no use or point and that examination would not improve the fate of the prosecution in getting its charge established.