‘Flaw in investigation police’: MP high court acquits rape, murder accused

The Madhya Pradesh high court has set aside a drict court’s order of the death penalty to a rape convict and acquitted him “in the absence of evidence”, stating that every ‘file’ has a relation with life and it needs to be handled with the utmost care, caution and sensitivity. Madhya Pradesh high court (File Photo) The high court set aside the death sentence to rape accused Vijay alias Pintiya, a habitual offender, noting that the police were unable to hold a proper investigation because of public pressure and any such flaw in the investigation can be treated as a ‘necessary evil’. The bench of justice Sujay Paul and justice AK Paliwal said the Burhanpur drict court “miserably failed to frame and put relevant questions relating to the DNA report”. “It needs to be remembered that the words ‘life’ and ‘file’ contain the same letters. Every ‘file’ has a relation with life. Thus, every file needs to be handled with utmost care, caution and sensitivity,” reads the court order. Also Read: MP court grants bail to Bishop, nun in religious conversion case Government prosecution Ajay Shukla during the course of the hearing, argued that a mere technical flaw in the investigation should not be viewed adversely and should not cause any dent in the overall prosecution story. To this, the high court said, “We do not see any merit in this contention because if a flaw in the investigation results into failure of justice, interference is inevitable.” Shukla further argued that considering the heinous and gruesome nature of crime coupled with public pressure on the police, the flaws deserve to be ignored. The court responded saying, “Suffice it to say that this argument is also devoid of substance. No amount of pressure on police can be a reason to ignore the quality of evidence. We are unable to persuade ourselves with the line of argument that work pressure or any other pressure on the police can be a reason to dilute the requirement of law and to bring clinching evidence against the accused. If we assuage our judicial conscience and treat such serious flaws as ‘necessary evil’, it will look more and more necessary and less and less evil. The flaws in the investigation and collection of evidence in this case cannot be said to be trivial in character”. Pintaya has been accused of kidnapping, raping and killing a three-year-old girl. The alleged incident took place on 15 August 2018 and the body of the girl child was found on 18 August 2018, following which an investigation was launched. Five days later, on August 23, 2018, police arrested and charged Pintaya with abduction, murder and rape under sections of the Indian Penal Code and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. He was presented before the Burhanpur drict court which after the hearing, sentenced Pintaya to death under two sections on 8 March 2019. In the same month in March 2018, Pintaya filed an appeal in the high court. ABOUT THE AUTHOR She is a senior reporter based at Bhopal. She covers higher education, social issues, youth affairs, woman and child development related issues, sports and business & industries. …view detail