CBI forged evidence in case: Trial court

In its judgment in the Dara Singh encounter case, the trial court has held that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had forged evidence and the investigation was mala fide. The court had acquitted all 14 accused policemen in the case

In October 2006, the Special Operations Group (SOG) of Rajasthan police had killed Dara Singh, a bootlegger, in an encounter in Jaipur. Following a petition by Dara’s wife that the encounter was staged, the Supreme Court had ordered a CBI probe into the matter.

The CBI in its year-long investigation alleged that the encounter was staged and accused 17 persons in the case, including Rajendra Singh Rathore, a minister in the Vasundhara Raje-led government at the time of the encounter, and two senior IPS officers. In its judgment on March 13 this year, the court held that the encounter was genuine and acquitted all 14 remaining accused policemen.

Besides the acquittal, the court made some strong remarks against the CBI’s investigation which cast aspersions on the credibility of India’s premier investigation agency.

The court said that the case was given to the CBI as part of a political agenda of the then state government and Jat Mahasabha. In addition, the CBI concocted a new story of the encounter sidelining the earlier investigation by local police and forged documents and call detail records to show that a certain mobile number belonged to Dara Singh, the court noted.

The court ruled that the investigating officer in the case prepared false evidence and witness that was needed to achieve his ‘sickening’ motive in the case. “… the investigation carried out by Santosh Kumar [investigating officer] adversely affects the reputation of an agency like CBI. If the agency has such officers, who will include false evidences in their investigation under political or personal influence, then not only will the feelings of common people be hurt but the very purpose of fair investigation will be lost,” read the judgment.

Furthermore, the court also said that the CBI officers were too keen to take the inquiry into their own hands as they registered an FIR in the case even before receiving a certified copy of the inquiry order. It is unbecoming of a senior officer of an independent agency to take interest and try to obtain a case driven by a sickening motive, the judgment noted.

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