Jeweller suicide case: Court directs Delhi Police to supply charge sheet to accused DRI officers

New Delhi [India], October 17 : Delhi's Saket court on Tuesday directed police to provide chargesheets to accused Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) officers. The court had issued summons to four DRI officers accused in the jeweller Gaurav Gupta suicide case of 2018.
In the case, DRI officers Parminder, Nishant, Mukesh, and Ravinder are accused.
The court issued a summons to them after taking cognizance of the charge sheet.
It is alleged that the deceased was tortured during interrogation, and the CCTV was plugged off.
The court had also issued some guidelines to be followed by the officials during raids and probes.
Metropolitan Magistrate Gaurav Dahiya directed the investigation officer to supply the charge sheet to the court before October 28.
The court took on record the application seeking the filing of complaint/ charge sheet/ documents filed by accused Nishant Kumar, Pravindra, and Mukesh, as well as DRI.
The matter has been listed on December 16 for further hearing.
On September 25, while issuing summons, the court said, "On the basis of the charge sheet, documents, statement of witnesses, and above discussion, material is sufficient for taking cognizance for offences under sections 323/341/166/352/362/348/306/330/34 IPC against Parminder, Nishant, Mukesh, and Ravinder."
The court had observed, "While there exists several guidelines and procedural safeguards to keep a check on the powers of investigating agencies like police, etc., there are no judicial guidelines or procedural safeguards for the agencies like the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and Customs, ete."
The court had said, In these circumstances and in view of the peculiar facts of the present case, the court is under a bounden duty to issue directions to the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence to revise the guidelines with respect to the procedures to be followed by its officers during the raid.
The Court had issued guidelines, which include that the proceedings of the raiding team conducted at the premises of the alleged person/Suspect should be video recorded and
preserved.
Secondly, the alleged person/Suspect should be given an effective opportunity to consult their advocate after the conclusion of the raid and before any interrogation. Free legal aid, where applicable, will be made available.
Thirdly, no person should be detained without following the procedure of law. Action be taken against officers detaining any person without following such procedure. Periodic checks be made by supervisory officers, and a record of all persons called for interrogation or otherwise maintained separately.
Finally, the court had said that there should be audio and video recordings of the interrogation of the suspect, which should be preserved till the case against him has concluded and the time period of filing an appeal has expired.
In this case, an FIR was registered on the allegation that her son Gaurav Gupta was murdered at the office of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence ('DRI').
After investigation, initially a cancellation report was filed for the offence under Section 302 of the IPC. The investigating officer, on the basis of material collected during the investigation, concluded that it was a case of suicide.
It is stated that on the evening of April 24, 2018, a raid was conducted by a team consisting of Parminder, Nishant, Mukesh, and Anju, all officers of DRI, at the office/ shop and the residence of victim Gaurav Gupta. The raid was concluded the next morning, resulting into recovery of gold, silver, and foreign currency.
The victim and his father are alleged to have accompanied the DRI officials to their office. The victim, Gaurav Gupta, jumped from the office of DRI through a window allegedly left open by the air conditioner repair person. This resulted in the death of the victim.
The court had said that, from perusal of the file, there is no material on record to show that the death of victim Gaurav was a murder. It is a prima facie suicide committed by Gaurav Gupta. Now it is to be seen whether the victim committed suicide on his own volition or if something happened with the victim at the DRI office that drove him to commit suicide.
The court further observed that the perusal of statements of the parents, employees, and relatives of the victim recorded by Ms. Swati Gupta, the thenlearnedd magistrate, shows that all the witnesses have deposed that the victim, Gaurav Gupta, was slapped by the officers of DRI at the time when the raid was being conducted when his father Ashok Gupta was pleading that they need not slap him as he was co-operating.
The court also took note of the fact that immediately after entering the office, the raiding party disconnected all the telephone connections and unplugged the CCTV cameras. While the raiding team could have validly disconnected the telephone connections and wifi transmission of the CCTV footage, there was no valid reason for them to have unplugged all the CCTV cameras installed at the premises where the raid was conducted.
"The presumption arises that raiding officers did not want their unlawful acts to be recorded in the CCTV footage that might be used against them. The conduct of the male officers of the raiding team was not proper since the beginning of the raid," the court observed.
In his statement, the father of the deceased categorically stated that during the course of the raid at his residence, one officer of DRI pointed Revolver at Gaurav Gupta, and then Manju Gupta, i.e., the mother of the deceased, intervened.
He further submitted that they were stopped at the entrance of the office, where the concerned officials informed the CISF Guard that "ye dono accused hai". He further stated that all the officers of the raiding team except the lady officer misbehaved and slapped them and their staff at the time of the raid.
He further stated that at the office of DRI, he and his son were kept in separate but adjoining rooms. He heard his son being beaten in the adjoining room. He also heard the cries of her son, Gaurav Gupta, the court noted.