Immature Approach By IO In Murder Probe By Not Sending Seized Material For Forensic Exam And Then Presuming Its Findings: Madhya Pradesh HC

While granting bail to man accused of murder due to lack of material–other than circumstantial evidence, connecting him to the alleged crime, the Indore bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court expressed its discontent over the "immature approach" adopted by the Investigating Officer in the probe.

A single judge bench of Justice Subodh Abhyankar in its order noted the State's submission that the evidence collected in the matter–beer bottles which were seized–were not sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory for its report on the fingerprints, because the incident had taken place on March 24, whereas the bottles have been seized only on June 17.

The court thereafter said, "thus, it was already more than three months since the bottles were lying in open, hence the Investigating Officer thought and presumed that the fingerprints might not have remained on the bottles due to weather, as the same were lying in open place. In the considered opinion of this Court, the aforesaid explanation is again totally unacceptable and incomprehensible, as it is not for the Investigating Officer to presume what would be found and what would not be found in the forensic investigation, and it was his duty to send the bottles to see if the fingerprints of the accused and the deceased were still available on the bottles. It only demonstrates the immature and unscientific approach adopted by the investigating officer".

The order was passed in petitioner's Gamar Singh's bail plea booked for the alleged murder of Rajesh Dawar under IPC Sections 302 (murder) and 201(Causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender). The Petitioner had been in custody since June 17.

After considering the submissions and perusing the documents on record the court said that it was a case of "circumstantial evidence and no other connecting material is available on record except the statements of the witnesses of last seen together", which was recorded on March 31 whereas the date of incident was stated to be March 24. Noting that the beer bottles were seized after "three months" had also not been sent for fingerprint examination to the FSL, the high court said that it is inclined to allow bail plea.

The court further referred to the court's earlier order in "M.Cr.C. No. 28712/2024," where, in order to stop the "practice of sloppy and careless investigation", the Director General of Police was directed to ensure that in each district of the State, each and every investigation in serious crimes be supervised by a team of two members to be headed by a senior level police officer, not below the rank of an experienced IPS officer, and other officer of the Police department who would not be below the rank of Sub-Inspector of Police, who may be chosen by the said IPS officer.

Granting bail to the petitioner, Justice Abhyankar thereafter said, "Let a copy of this order be also sent to the Director General of Police for compliance of the order passed in M.Cr.C. No. 28712/2024 dated 22.08.2024. With the aforesaid directions and observations, M.Cr.C. stands allowed and disposed of".

Case title: Gamar Singh @ Gamariya Versus The State Of Madhya Pradesh

Case no: MISC. CRIMINAL CASE No. 40753 of 2024

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