Investigation Officer Can't Prove Contents Of FIR In Case Of Death Of Informant Unless His Death Has A Nexus With The FIR Lodged: Gujarat HC [Read Judgment]

The Gujarat High Court, in Bhavanbhai Premjibhai Vaghela vs State of Gujarat, has held that an investigating officer cannot depose the contents of the FIR in the absence of the informant, who died a natural death, or whose death has no nexus with the complaint lodged.

In the instant case, the informant, during the pendency of the trial, died a natural death. The Investigation Officer, during his examination, deposed exact contents of the entire FIR. The objection by the defence counsel that it is not permissible in law for the investigating officer to prove the contents of the FIR if the first informant is dead was over-ruled by the trial court. This was challenged before the high court.

Justice JB Pardiwala observed that the investigating officer, in the course of his deposition, should not be permitted to depose the exact contents of the FIR so as to make them admissible in evidence.

All that is permissible in law is that the Investigating Officer can, in his deposition, identify the signature of the first informant and that of his own on the First Information Report and he can depose about the factum of the F.I.R. being registered by him on a particular date on a particular police station, the court said.

Referring to Supreme Court judgment, the court also said a prerequisite condition must be fulfilled before the FIR is taken as a substantive piece of evidence i.e., the death of the informant must have nexus with the FIR filed or somehow having some link with any evidence regarding the FIR.