V.S.Sirpurkar,J. - (1.) Leave granted.
(2.) An extremely unusual order passed by the High Court has fallen for consideration in this appeal which has been filed on behalf of the appellant/complainant Virender Prasad Singh. The said order was passed on the basis of a petition filed by the respondent No. 1/accused Rajesh Bhardwaj who is facing the charges of very serious offences like provided under Sections 302, 201 and 120B of the Indian Penal Code (hereinafter referred to as "IPC" for short). By the impugned order, the learned Judge of the High Court has issued certain directions, whereby he has directed the re-examination of the completed investigation by an officer of the rank of Director General of Police (DGP). An extremely unusual course has been taken, whereby the counsel for the respondent No. 1/accused, who had filed the petition under Section 482 before the High Court, was asked to give a proposal of three names of the police officers of the DGP rank for examining the records of the completed investigation, wherein even the charge sheet was already filed. Similar choice seems to have been given even to the counsel for the appellant/informant to suggest some names. The appellant/informant (respondent before the High Court) did not choose to give any name, with the result that the High Court went on to select one Mr. Manoj Nath, an IPS of 1973 Batch for assistance in the matter. The High Court observed: This Court requests Mr. Manoj Nath to examine all the records of the case in detail and submit his report to this Court preferably within a period of one month with his clear opinion as to (i) whether investigation of the case is complete from all angles and case is fit to be tried on the basis of materials and report placed on record by the Investigating Officer only or (ii) whether there are some loopholes and lacunae in the investigation which necessitates further or fresh investigation of the case and if necessary by a more experienced and specialized agency, and/or (iii) what further steps, if any, are required to be taken in the case in the ends of justice, so that the guilty may not escape and the innocent may not suffer due to laches on the part of officers of the State. For consideration of Mr. Nath, parties are directed to make available the documents and materials which they have placed on record in the form of a properly indexed paper book within two weeks. This Court expects from Mr. Nath that he will not get swayed away by any opinion of any officer or agency which may be available on record and shall completely ignore the pleadings of the parties. He will examine the documents and evidence of the witnesses available on record and form his independent opinion in the matter. If necessary, under the authority of this Court, he may requisition any other documents and material connected with the case, in original or in the form of its carbon copy, from any other source or authority and upon his requisition, the same shall be made available to him by all concerned, default of which shall be treated as contempt of this Court. In the last paragraph of its order, the High Court held: Till 21st June, 2010, the Court concerned shall not take any further steps in the proceeding arising out of Arrah Rail GRP Case No. 73 of 2007. The concerned criminal case was initiated by a First Information Report registered on 6.12.2007. It is an admitted position that the investigation had been completed and the police was going to submit the charge sheet dated 18.6.2009, but before that, the mother of the respondent No. 1/accused filed Crl. WJC No. 394 of 2009 before the High Court. In this petition, the prayer was for re-investigation of the matter by another agency. Eventually, the mother of the respondent No. 1/accused died and the respondent No. 1/accused was substituted for her, and it is only on that basis that the order has been passed.
(3.) The First Information Report refers to the incident which took place on 30.11.2007, according to which at 10 p.m. on that day, the accused went to the house of the deceased Sonu, the daughter of the appellant/complainant and left with the deceased on his motorcycle in presence of the witnesses. Since the deceased did not return home, the family members started searching for both. It has come on record that subsequently at about 12.30 a.m., the deceased Sonu had talked to her mothers sister Dr. Anita and informed her that she was with the accused and would come back after getting married with him. On the very next day i.e. on 1.12.2007, at 7.15 a.m., the family members of the deceased were informed by the Railway Police that the dead body of the girl is lying on the side of the Railway track at Karisath Railway Station and her Mobile set bearing No. 9304915589 was also lying there. The complainants brother Dr. Sanjeev reached the Railway Station and identified the body of the deceased. The deceased had injuries on her head and a portion of her leg was cut. Inquest Panchnama was executed by the Railway Police and the dead body was sent for postmortem. At this time, the complainant/father of the deceased was out of station. After he returned home, he was informed about the deceased having been taken by the respondent No. 1/accused at night on 30.11.2007. On 6.12.2007, a written complaint was filed. It was disclosed in the said complaint that the deceased was in love with Rajesh Bhardwaj, (respondent No. 1/accused) and wanted to get married with him and was persuading him for the last six months for marriage; However, the accused wanted to get rid of her, as he was having an affair with some other girl and it was due to this reason that the accused committed the murder of the deceased and threw her dead body near the Railway track at Karisath Railway Station, with the intention to create a false impression that the deceased had died in an accident. The Railway Police registered the case as GRP Case No. 73 of 2007 for offences punishable under Sections 364, 302, 201 and 120B IPC. An application for orders under Section 438 of the Criminal Procedure Code (Cr.P.C.) was moved by the respondent No. 1/accused before the Sessions Court, Arrah, which was dismissed by the Court vide order dated 18.3.2008. Needless to mention that the respondent No. 1/accused was not in the custody of the police till then. He has not been arrested even till date. Be that as it may, on finding that the accused was absconding, a proclamation under Section 82 Cr.P.C. was issued on 20.3.2008 by the Judicial Magistrate. It was also pasted on the residence of the respondent No. 1/accused on 27.3.2008. The respondent No. 1/accused, after about four months i.e. on 1.7.2008, moved a petition before the High Court for the same relief under Section 438, which was registered as Criminal Misc. No. 33158 of 2008. That was dismissed by the High Court vide order dated 1.7.2008. The respondent No. 1/accused did not stop there and moved to this Court by way of a Special Leave Petition (Crl.) No. 5140 of 2008. It came before this Court on 28.7.2008 and this Court dismissed the same. However, it was observed that: If the petitioner surrender before the concerned Court and move for bail, the Court would do well to dispose of the application on the day it is presented. Needless to mention that the respondent No. 1/accused never surrendered. On 6.4.2009, one more petition came to be filed before the High Court being Cr. WJC No. 352 of 2008, wherein the High Court was pleased to direct the Magistrate to dispose of the objection petition filed by the complainant after hearing both the parties and it was directed that till then the issuance of process of attachment under Section 83 Cr.P.C. would remain stayed. Very strangely, in this order, the High Court observed: the parents of the accused, would endeavour and do all within their prowess to prevail upon and persuade, their son Rajesh Bhardwaj to surrender before the court of law as his anticipatory bail has been rejected up to the Honble Apex Court. ;