Investigating officer can also be informant in narcotics cases: SC
Aug 31, 2020
New Delhi [India], Aug 31 : The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that an investigating officer in a Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act case can also be the informant, holding it casts no bias against the accused and cannot be a ground for acquittal.
A five-judge Constitution bench, headed by Justice Arun Mishra, said that an accused is not entitled to acquittal as a general principle on the ground that the informant and the investigating officer are the same.
"Merely because the informant and the investigating officer is the same, it cannot be said that the investigation is biased and the trial is vitiated," the bench said. It said that there is no automatic apprehension of bias and such cases will have to be decided on a case to case basis.
Just because an informant is an investigator it does not vitiate the investigation. Allegations of bias are not automatic, the bench said.
The Constitution bench of the Supreme Court was deciding the issue whether the trial of cases under NDPS Act will be vitiated if the informant and the investigating officer is the same person and whether the investigating officer in a criminal case can also be the informant/complainant.
