Two youths acquitted in robbery case, court pulls up police

Two youths, accused of robbing the personal security officer of an MP in 2010, have been acquitted by a Delhi court which came down heavily on the police for its "shoddy" probe saying they purposely made the duo "scapegoats" to save themselves from embarrassment.
The court let off Akshay Bhardwaj and Qamar Ahmad Saifi, both residents of Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, and said as the alleged robbery incident took place in a VVIP area in Chanakyapuri, the investigators were "probably alarmed" and in order to crack the case, they implicated the youths.
"This case is a stark example of shoddy, incompetent and mala fide investigation by police who were probably alarmed by the fact that a robbery had been committed in a VVIP area involving one of their brethren and somehow they purposely made both the accused scapegoats to crack the case to save their loss of face," additional sessions judge Dharmesh Sharma said.

The court also said the manner in which the probe into the case was conducted "does not inspire confidence at all".
According to police, Bhardwaj and Saifi along with co-accused Siddharth, who is still absconding, had robbed PSO Narender Singh around Rs 5,000, his mobile phone and other articles.
Singh had alleged that on the morning of May 18, 2010, he was walking on Mother Teresa Crescent Road when one white car stopped near him. Two youths placed a knife on his chest and forcibly pushed him inside the vehicle and then assaulted and robbed him.

During the probe, police conducted raid at Bhardwaj's house after which he surrendered on May 20, 2010 at the police station while Saifi was arrested on July 24, 2010.

During the trial, both the accused denied the allegations saying they were being falsely implicated in the case.
The court after going through the evidence placed before it, said, "At the outset, the case of prosecution is full of big holes making the whole case uninspiring for the manner in which the investigation was conducted."
It also said the police was not been able to bring on record as to who was the owner of the car used by the youths.