Acquitting three people in a 2014 murder case, a court here has slammed a Delhi Police investigating officer, saying while the actual killer is at large, innocents were put to trial and besides being “shoddy” and “manipulated”, the investigation seemed a “deliberate attempt to safeguard the actual offender”.
The court also observed that the case prima facie appeared to be of human sacrifice.
Additional Sessions Judge Dhirendra Rana was hearing the case in which a decapitated and mutilated body was found in the Bawana area here in December 2014, following which three people were arrested for the alleged killing.
The public prosecutor said the deceased, Manjeet, as well as the three arrested men were drug addicts and on the day of the incident, the victim had refused to share his contraband with them, which irked the accused who killed him.
In a recent judgment, the judge said, “The absence of any contraband in the blood sample of the accused persons, deceased and the recovered exhibits from the spot has totally demolished the case of the prosecution that all of them were consuming contraband at the spot and they had an altercation on sharing of contraband, which resulted in the murder of the deceased.”
The court wondered how the alleged weapon of offence, a blade, could be used to chop off the deceased’s head and mutilate his body in a manner that his chest bones were visible.
It said the investigating officer (IO) did not make any effort to trace the victim’s head and the accused had no purpose in concealing it.
Taking note of the post-mortem report, the court said the victim’s head and chest bones were chopped off after his death and his heart was also missing.
“Usually, a dead body is not found in such a mutilated condition in a murder case. The IO ignored this fact and went ahead to solve the case on the basis of the last-seen theory,” the court said.
It said the spot of the incident hinted that some kind of “tantrik” (occult) worship or religious act was performed there.
“The whole crime scene was an indicator of human sacrifice but the IO, for the reason best known to him, opted not to investigate the matter,” the court said, adding, “This case prima facie appears to be related to human sacrifice instead of the drug consumption theory.”
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It acquitted the trio of the offence of murder, saying the prosecution had failed to prove the case against them beyond a reasonable doubt.
“The collected evidence has not been proved as per law and the investigation seems to be shoddy, manipulated and a deliberate attempt to safeguard the actual offender. The investigation carried out by the IO is not only an injustice to the deceased but also to the accused persons, who have been facing the trial since 2015,” the court observed.
It said while “the actual killer is still at large”, innocents were put to trial by the IO.
The court directed the deputy commissioner of police (DCP) concerned to take suitable departmental action against the IO.
