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Synopsis

The Supreme Court has directed the Madhya Pradesh's Director General of Police to set up a special investigation team headed by Inspector General of Police and comprising IPS rank officer to probe disappearance of a person in 2016 allegedly due to property dispute involving BJP leader and Minister Govind Singh Rajput.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan directed the SIT to conclude its investigation within four months by also involving members of OBC Mahasabha, which filed a writ petition seeking a probe into the disappearance of Mansingh Patel in 2016.

The bench examined the question of whether the Police of District Sagar, having been apprised of the fact that as a sequel to some property dispute the father of the complainant had gone missing, was obligated to take cognizance of the gravity of the reported crime and whether the local police had failed to hold a fair, free, independent and dispassionate investigation into the matter.

Sita Ram Patel, son of the missing person Mansingh Patel made a complaint in August 2016, inter alia, pointing out that his father was abducted on account of a land dispute. 

Court noted that this complaint undoubtedly disclosed a cognizable offence making it imperative for the police authorities to register a case on receipt thereof.

"However, instead of FIR, a Missing Person Complaint No.9/2016 was lodged in Police Station, Civil Lines, Sagar on 26.08.2016," it said.

Sita Ram Patel, thereafter, filed an application withdrawing his complaint of August 26, 2016. He also claimed that he was instigated to make false complaint by Vinay Malaiya and Manoj Patel and that there was no land dispute.

The police searched for the missing person in the local area, and other places but it remained in vain.

The complainant also filed a writ petition about missing of his father but subsequently withdrew it.

"To our dismay and surprise, the police, after frantic inquiry, has eventually registered FIR No.23/2023 on 28.01.2023 in which Sita Ram Patel is claimed to have stated that “his father Mansingh Patel, most of the times, stays out of home, he goes on pilgrimage then he does not come back home for many days, however, he keeps coming home and going back,” the bench noted.

On May 05, 2023, Superintendent of Police, Sagar constituted a Special Investigating Team (SIT) “for the search of missing person in Missing Person Report No 9/2016”. However, the composition of that SIT primarily comprised the officials in the rank of Constables, ASIs etc.

During the hearing, Madhya Pradesh's Additional Advocate General Saurabh Mishra argued that the instant writ petition on behalf of OBC Mahasabha was not maintainable. 

To this, the bench said, "We are, however, not impressed by the objection. The reporting of commission of a cognisable offence is a statutory obligation on one and all. Where such reporting has been discarded by the police, deliberately or otherwise, the vigilant section of society or social help groups are expected to espouse such cause for securing justice to the voiceless victims and/or those who have been silenced under mysterious circumstances."

The bench said all that the petitioner – OBC Mahasabha had sought was only a fair investigation into the allegations of conspicuous disappearance of a person, who was robbed of his highly valuable property before he eclipsed from the scene. 

"There is no gainsaying that the lurking suspicion in the mind of those who are known to the missing person ought to be satisfactorily removed, even in the interest of those against whom needle of suspicion is raised," the bench said.

With regard to the statement by Sita Ram Patel, the bench said, "We fail to understand as to why the local police has not been able to trace out him and take a specific stand before us that the very allegation mentioned in Missing Report No.9/2016 is false and has no factual foundation."

The bench also noted there was not "an iota of evidence" to suggest that Mansingh Patel was alive or had been seen in recent years after he was reported missing in 2016.

"Even the latest affidavit of the Superintendent of Police, Sagar is conveniently silent about his whereabouts," it said.

"Owing to the serious nature of allegations and the persons whom such allegations are attributed, the composition of SIT is a mere eye-wash. It won’t be possible at all for that SIT to take the investigation to a logical conclusion which can inspire the confidence of the family, near and dear ones of the victim or the public in general," the bench added.

The apex court thus directed for the formation of a fresh SIT, which it ordered, to scrutinize the documents, including revenue records, indicating the genesis of the civil dispute with regard to ownership/transfer of land to find out as to what had actuated the sudden disappearance of Mansingh Patel.

Case Title: O.B.C. Mahasabha Vs State of MP & Ors