Santosh Kumar Singh vs State Th. Cbi

The appellant was thereafter allowed to go home and was directed to visit the Police Station at 9 a.m. on the 25th January 1996. The dead body was also subjected to a post-mortem on 25th January 1995 at the Safdarjung Hospital by a Board of Doctors consisting of Dr. Chander Kant, Dr. Arvind Thergaonkar and PW-

4. On the 25th January 1996 itself, after the completion of the post-mortem proceedings, Inspector Lalit Mohan searched the house of the deceased and picked up a greeting card Ex.PW 29/B said to be written by the appellant from her room. The Inspector also seized a helmet with the visor missing and indicating that it had broken and the Bullet motorcycle belonging to the appellant. The specimens Crl. Appeal No.87 of 2007 of his handwriting Exs.PW48/E1, E2 and E3 were also taken by the Inspector.

5. It appears that as the murder had taken place in very sordid circumstances and the fact that the appellant was the son of very senior police officer serving in the State of Jammu & Kashmir and was on the verge of a posting as Additional Commissioner of Police, Delhi, led to a hue and cry which was endorsed by the parents of the deceased as they apprehended that they would not get a fair deal from the Delhi Police. Faced with this situation, the Delhi Government itself requested the Central Bureau of Investigation vide letter dated January 24, 1996 that the investigation be taken over by that agency. As per the prosecution, this decision was taken by the Government on the specific request of the Crl. Appeal No.87 of 2007 Commissioner of Delhi Police to the Lt. Governor who referred the same to the Delhi Government.

6. Inspector Lalit Mohan thereupon produced the appellant before PW-50 DSP Shri A.K.Ohri of the CBI and the subsequent investigation was made by the DSP with the assistance of several other officers from the CBI. The underwear of the appellant was also seized by the CBI as he represented that he had been wearing the same underwear for the last couple of days. DSP Ohri also visited the crime scene on the 26th January 1996 but did not find Mr. C.L.Mattoo, the father of the deceased, present. On the next day, he recorded the statement of Virender Parshad, the domestic servant and also directed Shri D.P.Singh, DSP to conduct the house search of the appellant.

On the 28th January 1996, a request Ex.PW34/A was Crl. Appeal No.87 of 2007 made by Mr. S.K.Bhatnagar Additional Director of the CBI to Dr.A.K.Gupta, Medical Superintendent, Dr.R.M.L. Hospital for procuring the blood samples of the appellant. DSP Ohri along with the other staff took the appellant to the hospital and met PW-34 Dr. N.S.Kalra, Head of the Biochemistry Department and two blood samples of 10 ml. each were taken by Ms. Godavari Mangai, Lab Assistant and were handed over to Dr. Kalra. These samples as well as the other case property collected by DSP Ohri or entrusted to him by Inspector Lalit Mohan were deposited with the Moharrir Malkhana on the 29th January 1996 and preparations were made to refer the matter for a DNA test. Specimen hand writings Ex.PW24/A1 to A21 of the appellant were also obtained once again this time by the CBI. On 30th January 1996 Shri M.L.Sharma, Joint Director, CBI addressed a letter to the Director, Crl. Appeal No.87 of 2007 CCMB, Hyderabad requesting for DNA profiling.

Several articles were accordingly entrusted to PW-39 Sub-Inspector R.S.Shekhawat on 31st January 1996, they being:

The Sub-Inspector thereafter flew to Hyderabad on 31st January 1996 and deposited the aforementioned articles in the Office of Dr. Lalji Singh, Officer on special duty at the CCMB, Hyderabad on the next morning and an acknowledgement Ex.PW49/A relating to the following articles was obtained:

The underwear of the appellant was, however, returned by Dr. Lalji Singh as it was not relevant for the DNA finger printing test. On the 1st February, 1996 DSP Ohri re-visited the house of the deceased and recorded the statement of Mrs. Rageshwari Mattoo and Hemant Mattoo, the brother of the deceased who told the investigating officer that the appellant had been noticed by PW-2 Shri Kuppuswami standing near their house shortly before the time of the murder. The DSP then went to the house of Shri Kuppuswami but he was away. He, however, recorded his statement on the 4th February 1996. During the course of the Crl. Appeal No.87 of 2007 investigation, the appellant disclosed that he had received the injury on the metacarpal bone in an accident on the 14th January 1996 and had been treated at the Nirmay Diagnostic Centre and Hindu Rao Hospital. Inspector Terial was thereupon sent to the Centre to collect his medical records. They were duly collected on the 9th February 1996 and 16th February 1996 and deposited in the malkhana of the CBI. On 20th February 1996 a letter Ex.PW27/A was addressed to the Medical Superintendent, Safdarjung Hospital seeking an opinion about the injury suffered by the appellant on his hand. An opinion was rendered by PW-28 Dr. Mukul Sinha and PW-27 Dr. G.K.Choubey on the 22nd February 1996 that the injury seemed to be fresh as there was no evidence of any callus formation. On the completion of the investigation, the appellant was charged for offences Crl. Appeal No.87 of 2007 punishable under Sections 376/302 of the IPC. He pleaded not guilty and claimed trial.

Violence was detected on both sides of visor. Helmet was besmeared with a spec of blood. At the spot pieces of visor were found near the body of the deceased besmeared with her blood.

12. The accused took a false defence that fracture on the hand of the accused was sustained by the accused on 14.1.96 and it was not a fresh injury. The accused also gave false replies against proved facts.

These documents were deposited in the CBI Malkhana on the 9th February 1996 and 16th February 1996. In the course of his evidence PW DSP Ohri gave the above facts and further clarified that the appellant's father had produced an X-ray film before him on the 20th February 1996 and that he had also issued a notice to him to produce the treatment record of the appellant within two days. We see that the documents seized by Inspector Terial have been exhibited as defence documents. We further see that a reading of these Crl. Appeal No.87 of 2007 documents does indicate that an X-ray was taken on the 14th January 1996. Significantly however no Doctor of the Nirmay Diagnostic Centre or Bara Hindurao Hospital had been summoned as a witness.

S.K.Dhar and Sub-Inspector Rajinder Kumar. This was followed by another complaint Ex.PW 11/A Crl. Appeal No.87 of 2007 regarding some incident at the Khyber Petrol Pump and another undertaking was given by the appellant that he would not harass her on which she withdrew her complaint. The trial court further noticed that yet another incident had happened at about 3 p.m. on 16th August 1995 when the appellant had followed her home all the way from the University. A message was accordingly flashed from a PCR and received at Police Station, Vasant Kunj, and was recorded in the Daily Entry Register as Ex. PW12/A. An enquiry was entrusted to PW-12 Head Constable Vijay Kumar who went to the house of the deceased and took a report Ex.PW1/A dictated by her to her father and the appellant was thereafter arrested and taken to the police station along with his motorcycle. In this report the deceased wrote about the earlier incidents of harassment and also the apologies that had been Crl. Appeal No.87 of 2007 tendered by the appellant from time to time. It appears, however, that the police was under some influence and instead of pursuing the complaint to its logical end, several police officers, including the SHO, ACP Parbhati Lal and ACP Satender Nath persuaded the deceased to compromise the matter on which the deceased was compelled to state that the complaint be kept pending for the time being. We also find that an incident had happened on 16th February 1995 which led the deceased to file an FIR against the appellant under Section 354 of the IPC at Police Station, Maurice Nagar in which she wrote that despite the fact that a PSO had been attached with her because of the appellant's misconduct, he had still continued to chase and harass her and that as she was entering her class room he had caught hold of her arm and threatened her and tried to forcibly talk to her and Crl. Appeal No.87 of 2007 that she had immediately called her PSO who made a call to the Maurice Nagar Police Station and the police had come and taken him away. In addition to this, we find that the appellant had made a complaint against the deceased to the University authorities and followed it up with a reminder that she was pursuing two courses in the University at the same time which was against the rules with the result the University had issued a show cause notice to her and that the matter was still under enquiry with the University when the present incident happened. There is ocular evidence as well. PW1 Shri C.L.Mattoo, deposed that when he visited Delhi in December 1995 he noticed that the appellant and two or three boys were passing lewd remarks at his daughter. Likewise, it has come in the evidence of PW44 Smt. Rageshwari Mattoo, who testified that while she was admitted in the AIIMS, the Crl. Appeal No.87 of 2007 appellant had repeatedly called the deceased on telephone despite the fact that she was not taking his calls. The courts below have also placed reliance on the evidence of three witnesses in support of the telephone calls i.e. PW10 Tanwir Ahmed Mir, PW13 Satender Kumar Sharma, Advocate and PW16 Ms. Manju Bharti, Advocate who came into witness box to state that the deceased had told them that the appellant was harassing her on the telephone as well.

It appears that as the appellant's overtures had been rebuffed by the deceased, he had resorted to harassing her in a manner which became more and more aggressive and crude as time went by. It is evident that the appellant was well aware of her family background and despite several complaints against him and the provision of a PSO, he had fearlessly and Crl. Appeal No.87 of 2007 shamelessly pursued her right to the doorsteps of her residence ignoring the fact that she had first lived in the house of Lt. Col. S.K.Dhar, an Army Officer from the end of 1994 onwards and after January 1996 with her parents, her father too being a very senior officer in a Semi-Government Organization. It has come in the evidence of PW Smt. Rageshwari Mattoo that the police officers before whom the appellant had been brought on the complaints had desisted from taking any action against him and had, on the contrary harassed her, her husband and the deceased by summoning and detaining them in the Police Station at odd hours and for long periods of time. It was this behaviour that led the trial court to comment very adversely on the conduct of some of the police officers involved. We endorse the findings of the trial court that the conduct of these officers deserves to be Crl. Appeal No.87 of 2007 condemned as reprehensible.

16. We, accordingly, endorse the opinion of the High Court on circumstances 8 and 12. The onus to prove his defence and the circumstances relating to his injury and treatment were within the special knowledge of the appellant. He could, therefore, not keep silent and say that the obligation rested on the prosecution to prove its case.

With this background, we now examine the evidence leading to the charge of rape.

S.K.Dhar as well who deposed that the appellant had been harassing the deceased from November 1994 onwards and would repeatedly come to his house on his black Bullet motorcycle. In the light of the above evidence, the motive stands proved beyond any doubt.

28. We are, therefore, of the opinion that circumstances 1 to 3 which have been found by two courts against the appellant and in favour of the prosecution constitute a very strong chain in the prosecution's case. We agree with Mr. Sushil Kumar's broad statement that motive alone cannot form the basis of conviction but in the light of the other circumstances, the motive goes a very long way in forging the links in the chain.

31. We too believe from a perusal of the evidence that the High Court's observations were justified on the facts. In other words, even assuming that the matter before us was to be treated as a first appeal, we too would have interfered in the matter and set aside the judgment of the trial court, as it was against the evidence and to desist from doing so would cause great injustice not only to the prosecution but even to the deceased victim and her family.

32. We now come to the argument with regard to the omission in putting certain questions to the appellant.

Recording of a statement of the accused under Section 313 is not a purposeless exercise."

Crl. Appeal No.87 of 2007

Crl. Appeal No.87 of 2007

The aforesaid principles have been scrupulously adhered to by us while hearing this matter over almost 5 days.

Crl. Appeal No.87 of 2007

The reality that such a class does exist is for all to see and is evidenced by regular and alarming incidents such as the present one. Nevertheless, to our mind, the balance sheet tilts marginally in favour of the appellant, and the ends of justice would be met if the sentence awarded to him is commuted from death to life imprisonment under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code; the other part of the sentence being retained as it is. With this modification in the sentence, the appeal is dismissed.