Murder case: No action on repeated orders, court fumes at ‘indifference’
Usha.Das@timesgroup.com
New Delhi: 16.12.2021
A court has come down heavily on Delhi Police for noncompliance of its orders repeatedly in a murder case, saying it “has never experienced such indifference”.
Additional sessions judge Sanjay Sharma said the issue got further aggravated as the case was regarding the alleged murder of a citizen of Nepal. The remarks came after police repeatedly failed to produce two witnesses, both from Nepal. The court said it had issued summons to them as many as 15 times since September 1, 2016.
“Till date, the court has not received back any summons with report of service of the said summons upon the said witnesses. This court is of the opinion that the embassy of Nepal would render all possible assistance as the case is related to homicidal death of its citizen,” the judge said on Tuesday.
The court directed the Delhi police commissioner to submit a report as to whether the embassy was aware of the case, whether it would assist the court in securing the presence of the witnesses and why previous summons had not been returned to the court. It further said that if there was no response from the office of the commissioner, it would seek assistance of the Union home ministry.
On November 20, 2021, the judge noted that neither Directorate of Prosecution nor Delhi Police had informed the court as to what assistance they could provide the court in securing the presence of the witnesses.
It appears that the prosecution was content with mere issuance of process through the investigating officer and Delhi Police was happy with forwarding such process to the foreign ministry, the court had said, issuing a notice to the commissioner’s office to ensure the presence of an officer who could take appropriate steps for effective service of summons.
On November 24, the court noted that it had not received any response and once again issued notice to the commissioner to ensure the appearance of a senior officer. On receiving no response again, the court, on November 29, said it appeared that the office of the commissioner was not taking its direction sincerely. On December 4, it issued notice to the commissioner as to whether the previous orders were received by his office, and, if so, why they were not complied with.
On December 14, the judge again said there was no response to its previous orders. “This court has never experienced such indifference to the repeated orders of this court by the office of commissioner of police,” he observed.
JUDGE SAYS
Till date, the court has not received back any summons with report of service of the said summons upon the said witnesses
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