Book PI for protecting accused: HC to SP

Nagpur: After an elderly couple knocked the doors of the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court alleging several discrepancies in the probe of their son’s suicide at his in-laws’ home, the judges slammed Yavatmal police inspector (PI) and directed superintendent of police (SP) to register offences against the former for allegedly joining hands with the accused to protect them.
A division bench comprising justices Sunil Shukre and Avinash Gharote directed SP to appoint a special investigating officer of competence from the local crime branch, who will carry out further probe into the case.
“It appears to us that this case goes beyond the stage of gross negligence and it enters the arena of joining hands with accused persons in committing a serious crime. The SP to register offences under relevant sections against all suspects, including the first investigating officer, who prima facie destroyed the evidence and attempted to prepare a false one,” the judges said before asking SP to submit a report within four weeks.
“Prima facie, we find that there is material available to make an inference that the Avadhutwadi Police Station PI sided with the suspects. He tried either to ignore material evidence or change the circumstances, which would have led to carrying out investigation under murder (Section 302) charges against the respondents, including his wife and her parents.”
Petitioners Bhimabai and Govindrao Gadve, through counsel Apurv De, claimed that the PI was trying to hush up the death of their son Vijay who was found to have hanged himself at his father-in-law’s home on June 26, 2018. According to them, his wife and in-laws were harassing their son, but the officer tried to present the case as of a suicide and not probing it in from the murder angle.
Finding substance in De’s arguments, the judges observed that just three circumstances are enough to support their conclusion. “A certificate issued by a doctor in-charge of casualty shows that the patient was brought dead to the hospital. The spot-panchanama however, displays that ICU unit has been shown to be an incident spot. Even the PI doesn’t deny that the hanging took place in in-laws' home, but the rope by which the deceased hanged himself hasn’t been seized,” they said.