In this post we will discuss about the judgement of Punjab and Haryana high court in which it had dismissed the plea of two accused seeking the re-investigation in the sensational Nikita Tomar murder case which took place in Faridabad.

Reinvestigation of Criminal Case in High Court Chandigarh
Reinvestigation of Criminal Case in High Court Chandigarh

HIGH COURT DISMISSES PLEA FOR CASE RE- INVESTIGATION

Introduction : In this post we will discuss about the judgement of Punjab and Haryana high court in which it had dismissed the plea of two accused seeking the re-investigation in the sensational Nikita Tomar murder case which took place in Faridabad.

Facts of the case : The brief facts of the case are as under :

On the afternoon of October 26, 2020 Nikita Tomar  emerged  out of Aggarwal college where she was a third year Bcom student. Two men try to  drag her into their vehicle at one point and one of them shot her when she resisted. She had succumbed to her injuries while undergoing treatment the same day. In the 24 hours that followed Faridabad police had arrested both the men  involved in the incident identified as Tauseef who had been in school with Tomar and Rehaan  who was Tauseef’s  friend. Investigation had revealed that Tauseef  harboured one sided feeling for Tomar and had been pressurizing her to marry him.

The accused had approached the high court challenging the order of trial court of Faridabad dated 23rd November 2020 where in revision by petitioners seeking the investigation of case and claiming unfair investigation by Haryana police was dismissed. The petitioner (accused) Tauseef and Rehaancontent before the High court that the investigation according to them was hurriedly conducted by the police authorities who submitted their final report in just 11 days after the FIR was lost and according to the petitioners, suchhurried  investigation was both unfair and improper and also  under public / media mass pressure.

ALSO READ- REINVESTIGATION BY POLICE

Related legal provisions :

  • section 156 to 158 of criminal procedure code 1973
  • Section 167 of criminal procedure code 1973
  • Section 173 of criminal procedure code 1973

Legal issues :The main legal issues involved in this case is :

  • Whether the investigation was conducted by Haryana police in an unfair manner and was under public and mass media pressure or not?
  • Whether the reinvestigation of the case should be permitted or not?

ALSO READ- WHEN CAN POLICE DO REINVESTIGATION?

 

Decision of  Hon’ble  Punjab and Haryana high court : Justice Sudip  Ahluwalia after hearing to the argument held that it would be apt  to observe that the hype surrounding any so perceived sensational case in the media at large is certainly likely to attract its own share of attention public curiosity discussion and reaction. But that cannot ipso facto lead to any supposition  that investigating authorities abdicated their responsibility of probing into the same fairly or objectively and where  such conduct is imputed it is for the aggrieved party to make out a cogent and convincing case explaining how the investigation conducted has been improper or unfair further has rightly noted by both the subordinate courts below there is no illegality intimate in the final report by the investigating authorities within 11 days after the date of occurrence since no minimum time to do so has been prescribed in the statute it is purely for the investigating agency to take a call as to whether or not it has been able to collect proper and sufficient evidence to substantiate the final result of its investigation and academically  even if there be any infirmity remaining there in benefit of the same would only go to the accused side who cannot possibly be prejudiced in the circumstances and would stand to be benefited by such speedy investigation.The contention of the petitioner side to the effect that the final report has been submitted without waiting for the forensic or scientific examination reports would therefore appeared to be inconsequential at this stage since it is a settled law  that investigating authorities are not prevented from submitting any supplementary charge sheet for the evidence so collected even after having initially submitted a final report on the basis of their investigation. Justice Ahluwalia held that the court finds no impropriety and infirmity of such nature in the final report submitted by the police in the present case as to direct holding of any further investigation at the instance of accused persons.

Conclusion : Thus the Punjab and Haryana High court has dismissed the plea of the two accused seeking the re- investigation in the sensational Nikita Tomar murder case which took place in Faridabad.

ALSO READ- MURDER CASE OF TRICITY CHANDIGARH PANCHKULA MOHALI

This post is written by Karishma Jain.

For case specific advice, one may contact best criminal expert lawyers in Chandigarh Panchkula Mohali. More on 99888-17966