LI Network
Published on: February 10, 2024 at 20:31 IST
The recent criticism from the Supreme Court aimed at the Bihar Police for anticipating an accused to establish innocence during investigations has stirred controversy.
The Court strongly denounced such a stance, labeling it as shocking.
During the hearing of a criminal appeal challenging the Patna High Court’s decision denying anticipatory bail to the current accused, the Division Bench comprising Justices Abhay S. Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan expressed dismay.
The Supreme Court, which granted interim protection on December 6, 2023, conditioned the accused to cooperate with the investigation.
When the case was revisited on February 08, 2023, the Court observed that the accused was summoned for investigation only once. Furthermore, the Court highlighted paragraph 9 of the police’s counter-affidavit, stating:
“9. That further as per order of Hon’ble Supreme Court I.O has served notice to petitioner Tauhid @ Kallu, Manoj Singh on 15/01/2024 to join the investigation as mentioned in paragraph-71 of C.D. and thereafter Tauhid @ Kallu, Manoj Singh appeared before I.O. on 24/01/2024 and on interrogation pleaded himself innocent but did not produce and material in support of his claim.”
Upon examining this, the Court noted that the police sought the accused’s custody not for interrogation but for other purposes.
“From paragraph 9 of the counter affidavit, it is obvious that the Police need the custody of the appellant-Md. Tauhid @ Kallu, not for interrogation but for some other reason. We must also record that the approach of the Police reflected from paragraph 9 of the counter affidavit, to say the least, is shocking.”
In light of these findings, the Court converted the interim order in favor of the accused into a permanent one.
Case Title: Md Tauhid vs State of Bihar