High Court Deprecates Delhi Police's "Indifference" In Dowry Death Case, Says No Effort Made To Ascertain Actual Cause Of Death

The Delhi High Court has deprecated the Delhi Police for conducting “lackadaisical investigation” in a dowry death case and said that no effort was made by the probe agency to ascertain the actual cause of death of the 23-years-old deceased woman.

“The ante mortem injuries and the Post Mortem Report clearly pointed out that it may be a case of homicidal death despite which the Investigating Agency has not even made any effort to conduct thorough investigations to ascertain the actual cause of death,” a division bench of Justice Suresh Kumar Kait and Justice Neena Bansal Krishna said.

The court observed that an “extreme casual approach” was adopted by the Delhi Police, despite the fact that the deceased was a young girl of barely 23 years of age who lost her life to an unnatural death within six months of her marriage.

“Such kind of indifference and lackadaisical investigation by the Investigating Agency is highly deprecated,” the bench said.

The court dismissed the leave to appeal sought by the prosecution challenging the trial court order acquitting the husband and his family members in an FIR lodged by the deceased’s father.

The trial court had acquitted the accused persons under Section 498A (cruelty), 304B (dowry death), 302 (murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. It was observed that the prosecution was not able to establish that there were demands of dowry “soon before the death”.

Dismissing the prosecution’s plea, the bench said that the investigations in the case were carried out by the police in the “most casual manner” and that it did not even bother to investigate whether the death was natural or homicidal, despite the opinion of the Doctor who recorded that there were as many as six external injuries on the deceased’s dead body.

“In view of the above, we found no ground for grant of Leave to Appeal. The same is hereby dismissed. The pending application also stands disposed of accordingly,” the court said.

Case Title: STATE v. DHEERAJ SHARMA & ORS.

Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Del) 727

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