'Effort To Shield Real Culprits': Calcutta High Court Initiates Departmental Proceedings Against IO, Orders De Novo Probe

The Calcutta High Court on Friday while hearing a plea for quashing of charge sheet reprimanded the concerned Investigating Officer for conducting a 'biased, wholly misdirected and fully tainted' investigation in order to shield the actual offenders. Accordingly, departmental proceedings were initiated against the Investigating Officer and the Court directed a separate police department to conduct de no investigation of the case.

Justice Bibek Chaudhuri pursuant to the perusal of the record opined,

"The chain of events leading to the filing of F.I.R under Section 154 of the Code by the defacto complainant and consequent investigation by police are shrouded with bona fide suspicion and reasonable doubt involving wide ramification in the administration of justice, persuading the Court to adjudicate the issue in hand under the touchstone of the basic requirement of investigation of a criminal case to establish the truth behind commission of an offence."

In the instant case, the defacto complainant is the daughter of the deceased i.e. Dr. Anindita Bhattacharrya. The deceased had allegedly committed suicide on August 17, 2017. Consequently, the complainant had lodged a written complaint alleging that the petitioner had developed an illicit relationship with her mother with the sole motive of procuring a large sum of money from her. On the basis of the written complaint, the Office-in-Charge of Dum Dum police station registered a case under Sections 306 (abetment of suicide) and 34 (act in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against the petitioners and Superintendent of Police Naru Gopal Chakraborty was directed to head the investigation.

Consequently the present plea was filed seeking the setting aside of the charge sheet in exercise of the inherent powers of the High Court under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).

Observations:

The Court observed that powers under Section 482 of the CrPC must be exercised sparingly and in the rarest of the rare cases. Such exercise of inherent powers is only applicable when it is brought to the notice of the Court that a grave miscarriage of justice would be committed if the trial is allowed to proceed resulting in the unnecessary harassment of the accused. Thus, only in the following cases can inherent powers be exercised- a) To give effect to an order under the CrPC b) To prevent abuse of the process of the Court and c) To otherwise secure the ends of justice.

In light of the aforementioned principles, the Court ruled that it is undisputed that the investigation conducted by the Investigating Officer of the Dum Dum Police Station was completely biased and misdirected. Elucidating further the Court opined,

"The Investigating Officer of Dum Dum P.S Case No.821 dated 17th August, 2017 purposefully and with ulterior motive did not try to ascertain the truth behind the offence under Section 306 of IPC and unnatural death of Dr. Anindita Bhattacharrya in spite of receipt of complaint under Section 498A of the IPC filed by the deceased and elaborate note made by her in her diary about one and half months before her death. He even did not examine the defacto complainant, the husband of the deceased, the petitioners and near relatives and colleagues of Dr. Anindita since deceased. His job was only confined to record some statements of some persons who are in no way connected with the deceased or her family to create some inadmissible evidence against the petitioners."

Accordingly, the Court ruled that the charge-sheet is liable to be quashed because commencement of criminal trial on the basis of such faulty and biased charge-sheet would constitute an abuse of the process of the Court. Further, the Court opined that the Inspector-in-Charge of the Dum Dum Police Station cannot be relied upon anymore as he had forwarded a baseless the charge-sheet to the court of learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, Barrackpore.

As a result, the Court directed the Commissioner of Police, Barrackpore Commissionerate to conduct a de novo investigation of the case by an honest and impartial officer under his disposal not below the rank of Deputy Commissioner of Police. A monthly status report of the investigation was also directed to be submitted to this court until the investigation concludes.

Accordingly, the Court disposed of the petition by ordering the Commissioner of the Barrackpore Police Commissionerate to initiate departmental proceedings against the previous Investigating Officer of the case i.e. Superintendent of Police Naru Gopal Chakraborty.

Case Title: Sri Debasish Bhattacharjee & Anr. v. The State of West Bengal & Anr.

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