Read Time: 07 minutes

Synopsis

The Supreme Court has directed the Director General of Police, Rajasthan to immediately initiate an inquiry into a "very shocking" episode of "serious misconduct" by the police personnel, for assaulting a 14-year-old young girl to own up murdering her mother.

A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan came across the statement of the girl made before the trial court as a prosecution witness while dealing with the bail application of the accused Ramveer.

"We may note here a very shocking feature of the case. PW-2 is the daughter of the deceased," the bench noted.

The court recorded in her examination-in-chief, she has stated thus, "There was a scuffle between mom and Ramveer over some issue, then Ramveer got angry and took out a pistol and fired it at mom and forbade me from telling this to anyone and said that if I told anyone, he would kill me too. After this he called someone and left from there. After that he came back after two to five minutes and started telling someone on the phone that bullet had hit. That other one told that call the police and then he called the police."

"After this he tried to give me money but I refused to take the money. After that he went out to take the police and said that this woman had shot herself and then said that this girl had shot her. The policemen gave me a pistol and asked me show how it fires. I was scared. After interrogating the police took me to the police station. There they beat me and said tell that you are the one who shot your mother. Then I was sent back home at 7:30 in the night," the bench noted the girl's deposition.

The bench said this witness was not declared as hostile. Therefore, what she has stated insofar as the acts of the police are concerned, has gone unchallenged, it noted. 

The age of the witness on the date of the incident was approximately 14 years. She stated that firstly, the police suspected that she had committed the offence and therefore, a policeman gave her a pistol and asked her to show how it fires. She was scared. She was taken to the police station where she was assaulted and the police tried to compel her to tell that she was the one who had shot at her mother, the court said.

"As this portion of the evidence has gone unchallenged, it is a case of serious misconduct on the part of the police personnel. Not only that this is a misconduct, but an offence has been committed," the court said.

The bench, therefore, directed that a copy of this order should be forwarded to the Director General of Police, Rajasthan who will immediately initiate an inquiry into the episode and will ensure that not only that an action on the administrative side is taken but the criminal law is set in motion.

The court directed its registry to forward the copy of the order to the DGP, Rajasthan.

It will be the responsibility of the respondent State to immediately communicate this order to its Director General of Police, the court said.

The bench did not dispose of the appeal and directed for its listing on April 26 for the DGP to submit a report on the action taken in the matter.

The appellant here challenged the Rajasthan High Court's order of September 5, 2023 declining him bail in the case.