The Madhya Pradesh High Court has overturned the conviction and life sentence of a man and his son who were accused of murdering a youth allegedly in a relationship with their daughter/sister. In a strongly worded judgment, the Court not only set aside their conviction but also tore into the police for conducting what it described as a dishonest and manipulative investigation.
A Division Bench comprising Justice Vivek Agarwal and Justice A.K. Singh passed the judgment while hearing the appeal of Nain Singh Dhurve and his son, who had been sentenced to life imprisonment by a Mandla district sessions court in November 2023.
The High Courtโs disbelief stemmed from a key contradiction in the prosecutionโs case: call detail records showed that the deceased, Rajendra, had spoken to the girl in question until September 25, 2021 โ several days after the date of death noted in the postmortem report.
โScience has yet not developed so much as to enable a deceased person to connect through mobile phone and talk to the daughter of the accused person,โ the Court remarked with biting sarcasm, calling it a โlacuna which reveals how dishonest is the status of investigation in the state of Madhya Pradesh.โ
The bench found that the investigation was riddled with lies and fabrication, noting that the police appeared more interested in filing a chargesheet than conducting a fair and thorough probe.
Implanted Witness, Ignored Evidence
The prosecution’s case relied heavily on an alleged eyewitness, Chet Singh, who claimed to have stayed with the accused on the night Rajendra went missing (September 19, 2021). He alleged that he woke up during the night and saw the accused beating someone. The police concluded it must have been Rajendra.
But the Court found this testimony to be concocted and labelled Chet Singh as an โimplantedโ witness. He had reappeared in the village from Kerala โ where he allegedly went for a job โ five months after the incident, only to make a statement that conveniently supported the prosecutionโs version.
The bench also questioned why none of Rajendraโs family members ever mentioned the alleged relationship to police or suspected the accused of murder. Notably, the police did not even examine the girl to confirm the relationship or whether her family opposed it.
DGP Ordered to Act
Alarmed by the โmechanicalโ and โfabricatedโ manner of the investigation, the Court issued a series of directions to the Director General of Police, Madhya Pradesh:
- Initiate departmental enquiry against the Investigating Officer and other personnel involved.
- Issue guidelines for proper investigation of crimes to prevent misuse of law and protect the life and liberty of innocent citizens.
- Submit a report within 30 days detailing the inquiry and action taken.
The stateโs government advocate, Ajay Tamrakar, was directed to supply the DGP with a certified copy of the judgment and a list of officials involved.
