HC summons Chandigarh DGP for ‘botched up’ probe
CHANDIGARH: Observing that it was a ‘sorry state of affairs’ in the Chandigarh Police department, the Punjab and Haryana high court on Wednesday summoned director general of police (DGP) TS Luthra over the ‘botched up’ probe into the Haryana Civil Service (HCS) judicial paper leak case.
Balwinder Kumar Sharma, the then HC registrar (recruitment) and an additional district and sessions judge rank official, is one of the accused in the case besides two women candidates.
The allegations are that paper was being sold for over ₹1 crore.
The full bench presided over by justice Rajesh Bindal came down heavily on the SIT and observed that it had not seen ‘such a helpless investigating agency’. The police also came under fire for providing statebut ments of six witnesses, which were given to magistrates, to the accused persons and not challenging this decision of the trial court.
Second issue was regarding an April 10 order in which the main accused, Balwinder Sharma, had sought call records of SIT members, including their private numbers, alleging that they were working under the pressure of some ‘high ups’. The trial court directed to provide the details, the UT police did not challenge the order.
All these issues were never brought before the full bench, which was monitoring the probe. The court observed that allegations about influence were required to be taken seriously, but the police kept quiet.
The examination for 109 HCS (judicial) posts was conducted on July 16, 2017. Following a petition in the HC in August 2017, a court probe panel had found that the paper was leaked. Now, SIT headed by SP (crime) is probing the case and has filed chargesheet against the three accused.
‘YOU ARE ON DEFENSIVE’
“He (Balwinder) is foreclosing all your investigation and you are on defensive. Can someone behind bars put investigating agency in a dock...it shows that they (accused) want SIT to be investigated. Give him CDS so that he can’t investigate you,” the court said even as UT’S counsel, senior advocate RS Rai said that April 10 order is now being challenged and additional district attorney, who was conducting this case, has been removed and now in his place, the district attorney will be leading prosecution before the trial court.
However, HC wondered ‘whether any senior official was monitoring the trial in the prosecution department’. “Is prosecution department there or not. Are all incompetent?” the court asked as it came to the fore that both the orders were never challenged. The court was also perturbed as to why it was kept in the dark even as SC had entrusted it with monitoring of the probe. The UT police were also slammed for not keeping the magisterial statements in a sealed cover. The HC questioned since probe was not complete, how statements were provided to the accused. Luthra is to appear on Thursday.