Court orders action against cop who filed untrace report despite identification of offending vehicle in accident death
Nov 30, 2022
New Delhi [India], November 30 : Taking a serious view on the conduct of an Investigation Officer (IO) in a road accident death case, a Delhi court has asked the Commissioner of Police (CP) to fix the liability of the erring police officer and take appropriate remedial action.
The court also noted that the police officer had remained "indifferent and insensitive" towards the plight of the victim.
The IO had filed an untraced report despite the identification of the vehicle and eyewitnesses on the date of the incident itself. The court upheld the two-year sentence awarded to the convicted by the trial court as well.
The court has directed to send a copy of the judgment to the Commissioner of Police with a request to look into the matter, fix the responsibility of erring police officials including IO/SHO and take appropriate remedial action under intimation to this court.
In the present case, a person namely Harish Kumar died in a road accident caused by the convict Nitin Mehta on March 17, 2014 in the Sarita Vihar area of South East Delhi.
Additional Sessions Judge Anuj Agrawal of Saket District Court dismissed the revision filed by Nitin Mehta against the judgment of the trial court. He was convicted for the offence of death due to the negligent act. He was sentenced to 2 years imprisonment. He was also directed to pay a compensation of Rs 50,000 to the victims.
The Court after dismissing the revision petition ordered to take Nitin Mehta into custody to serve the sentence awarded in the matter. The request to take a lenient view was also dismissed by the court.
The judge observed, "The prosecution has been able to prove its case beyond all reasonable doubts against the appellant and therefore the present appeal so far as it impugns the judgment of conviction stands dismissed."
While deciding the revision the judge said, "I am at pains to observe that despite loss of a precious human life, the concerned police officials remained indifferent and insensitive to the plight of the victim and chose to report the matter (initially) as untraced despite ascertaining the identity of offending vehicle as well as an eyewitness on the date of the incident itself.
The Court observed, "The accident might have been reported as untraced by the investigating agency but for the herculean efforts of a good Samaritan who left no stone unturned for bringing the actual culprit to book."
"Therefore, the indolence of investigating agency is required to be brought to the notice of the Higher Echelon of Delhi Police for taking appropriate remedial action," the court said in the order of November 18.
The prosecution had alleged that on March 17, 2014, at about 6.50 pm, the appellant/accused was driving his car in a rash and negligent manner and at a high speed on Sarita Vihar flyover towards Mathura Road to Badarpur so as to endanger human life and personal safety of others and while driving so, he hit the motorcycle being driven by Harish Kumar and caused his death.
