SC upholds acquittal of 4, slams UP Police for shoddy probe

NEWDELHI: Upholding the acquittal of four accused in the 2001 Kanpur riots case, the Supreme Court on Monday blasted the Uttar Pradesh Police for its shoddy probe into the violence in which a senior officer lost his life and said “lapses” in the investigation “disabled” the prosecution.

An ADM had been killed in the violence.

The top court said the case suffered from multiple investigative lapses and flaws, which fortified the presumption of innocence in favour of the accused.

A bench of justice N V Ramana and justice M M Shantangaudar found lapses in the police probe on seven counts, including an inordinate delay in conducting test identification parade (TIP), discrepancies related to forensic, post- mortem reports and place of occurrence of the incident, recovery of weapon and examination of the material witness.

“Although we acknowledge the gravity of the offence alleged against the accused-respondents and the unfortunate fact of a senior official losing his life in furtherance of his duty, we cannot overlook the fact that the lapses in the investigation have disabled the prosecution to prove the culpability of the accused,” the bench said in its order.

The apex court upheld the order of the Allahabad high court which acquitted all the accused, saying “in our opinion, there exists no perversity in the judgment of the high court”.

“The accused cannot be expected to relinquish his innocence at the hands of an inefficacious prosecution, which is ridden with investigative deficiencies. The benefit of doubt arising out of such inefficient investigation must be bestowed upon the accused,” the bench said.

The apex court said the cumulative effect of the investigative lapses has fortified the presumption of innocence in favour of the accused.

“Further, in the absence of compelling reasons, this court is not keen to entertain these appeals challenging the order of acquittal,” the bench said.

It said that police failed to link the chain of circumstances so as to dispel the cloud of doubt about the culpability of the accused. “It is a well settled principle that a suspicion, however, grave it may be, cannot take place of proof, i.e., there is a long distance between ‘may be’ and ‘must be’, which must be traversed by the prosecution to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt,” the bench said.

The state government has moved the apex court challenging the order of the high court dated May 29, 2009 by which it had acquitted all the accused.