Gujarat Police directed to conclude probe in two-decade-old criminal case

The Supreme Court on Thursday directed Gujarat Police to conclude its probe within six weeks in a two-decade-old criminal complaint relating to forgery and cheating in revenue records and said it is also incumbent upon constitutional courts not to remain mute spectators when prolonged investigations are brought to its notice.

A bench of justices Sanjay Karol and Augustine George Masih noted that in this case, there has been an inordinate delay in the investigation of the criminal complaint.

The right to speedy trial is intrinsically linked to Article 21 of the Constitution, it said.

In this case, a complaint was instituted by a man before the Judicial Magistrate, Bhiloda against four individuals under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating), 463 (forgery) of the Indian Penal Code.

It was alleged in the complaint that the subject property was self-acquired by him in 1975. Subsequently, when he was on Haj pilgrimage from February 5, 2002 to March 21, 2002, the accused persons forged his signature and prepared a forged partition deed along with a bogus sale deed in relation to the subject property.

On the basis of such forgery, their names were entered into the revenue records.

In 2014, the police presented a report before the judicial magistrate which came to be rejected, and further investigation was directed, to be concluded within 60 days.

Later, the Gujarat High Court in 2017 directed preparation of the investigation report within six weeks while recording that some of the material collected during the investigation had gone missing from the custody of the police station concerned.

The top court in its judgement said the high court should have taken note of the inordinate delay in filing of the charge sheet and intervened in the matter at hand.

“In the present factual matrix, nearly two decades have passed since the initiation of the complaint by the original complainant. However, it is a matter of serious concern that despite the lapse of such an inordinate period of time the investigation is yet to reach any meaningful conclusion.

“From a bare perusal of the record, it is evident that the original complainant had run from pillar to post, for filing of a charge sheet in connection with his complaint, but to no avail,” the bench said.

The apex court said it is incumbent upon constitutional courts to not remain mute spectators, when such prolonged investigations are brought to its notice.

“Therefore, in such peculiar circumstances, the High Court ought to have exercised its extraordinary jurisdiction to intervene in the present matter.

“Moreover, we are of the view that incidents such as this, wherein case records are lost during an active investigation, have to be taken with utmost seriousness. Moreover, such incidents strike at the very core of the criminal justice system, rendering bona fide complaints inactionable,” the bench said.

The top court directed Gujarat Police to conclude investigation within a period of six weeks from today and file an appropriate report with the JMFC containing all investigative material.

It also directed the Gujarat government to file an affidavit indicating specific action taken against the officer involved, the stage of such action and whether taken to its logical conclusion.