Victim Too Has Fundamental Right To Fair Investigation & Trial: Rajasthan HC Quashes DGP’s Direction To Transfer Investigation For A Fourth Time

The Rajasthan High Court recently quashed an order of the Director General of Police, Rajasthan transferring the investigation in several connected criminal cases for a fourth time. While setting aside the said order of the DGP, the single-judge bench of Justice Birendra Kumar at Jaipur underscored that the ‘right of fair trial and fair investigation’ is the ‘right of the victim as well’.

Additionally, the court also noted the order issued by the Director General of Police was in contravention of the administrative instruction that a case can’t be transferred more than thrice. Moreover, the DGP has not assigned any justification for such transfer of investigation to the Crime Branch on 13.06.2023, the judge noted.

“Evidently, no reason has been assigned in the order dated 13.6.2023 except the direction of the DGP for transfer of the investigation. The glaring thing is that progress report of the investigation has been called for. First progress report of the investigation has been called for within 7 years… Right of fair investigation and fair trial is fundamental right of the victim as well”, the court observed.

Before the High Court, the petitioner argued that the accused can’t demand that the investigation must be done by an agency of their choice as held in Romila Thapar & Ors. v. Union of India & Ors. (2018).

Therefore, the court directed that the investigations in all 6 FIRs must be transferred to Additional DCP (West), Jaipur under the supervision of the Commissioner of Police, Jaipur. A mandate has also been made by the court to conclude the investigations within a period of 2 months and submit a report to the High Court subsequently.

Background

The petitioner in this case was the informant in six FIRs registered in 2017 at several police stations of Jaipur. While these petitions were being investigated by the respective police stations, investigations in some of the FIRs were transferred to the Special Operations Group (SOG) and some others were transferred to the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) by the then ADGP of ATS/SOG. In the current miscellaneous petition, the petitioner-informant alleged that the erstwhile ADGP was biased in favour of the accused persons and such transfer of investigations was a ploy to shield the accused. Negative reports were filed in all the FIRs by the investigating agencies due to the undue influence of the then ADGP, the petitioner/informant further claimed.

Due to several representations made by the petitioner-informant against such alleged discrepancies in investigations, all of these cases were transferred to Additional DCP (West), Jaipur by the erstwhile DGP. Afterwards, the then ADGP of ATS/SOG assumed the charge of DGP in the state of Rajasthan. Via a fresh order dated 02.12.2022, the newly sworn-in DGP stayed the arrest of the accused persons in the six FIRs. The petitioner/informant filed a writ petition to quash the said order of the DGP as well as to direct that further investigation be conducted by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by the Commissioner of Police.

That petition was disposed of with a direction to approach the concerned Magistrate for any grievance pertaining to fair investigation. Urging that the case was disposed of without hearing the petitioner and must be reconsidered, another criminal miscellaneous application was filed before the High Court. Upon this petition, the court quashed DGP's order dated 02.12.2022 by stating that it was ‘a blanket order without any reason’ and called for the records of the investigation of the aforesaid FIRs and the arrest of the accused persons.

On 13.06.2023, under the instructions of the DGP, the case was again transferred for a fourth time to the Crime Branch. This order was challenged by the petitioner before the High Court through this criminal miscellaneous application.

Case Title: Tikam Khandelwal S/o Shri Mohan Khandelwal v. State Of Rajasthan

Case No: S.B. Criminal Miscellaneous Application No. 246/2023

Click Here To Read/Download Order