COURTESY HT FEB 3

P’kula CBI court takes Hry authorities to task
Tanbir Dhaliwal

tanbir.dhaliwal@htlive.com

Panchkula : ‘Sickened’ by the ‘lackadaisical’ attitude of the sanctioning authority to prosecute four policemen, the CBI court Panchkula slammed the principal secretary (home), Haryana, among others, for ‘sleeping over’ like a ‘Kumbhakarna’ over the request of the country’s premier investigating agency instead of discharging its statutory duties.

The court has given 10 days’ time to revert. The case for which the CBI is seeking prosecution sanction is related to the murder of 7-year-old boy on September 8, 2017, at a Gurugram school. In the case, the police had arrested a school bus conductor Ashok Kumar, who was taken on three-day police remand. The case was then transferred to the CBI, which found a Class 11 student responsible for the murder and Kumar was discharged by the court in February 2018.

The CBI submitted in the charge-sheet that the four policemen in question tortured Kumar, criminally intimidated him, fabricated evidence and official records against Kumar and used it in the court. The four accused are deputy superintendent of police Birem Singh, who was the then ACP, Sohna, Gurugram; inspector Narinder Singh Khatana and then sub-inspector Shamsher Singh, now retired, and Subhash Chand. The CBI has not been able to get sanction to prosecute the four policemen.

On Tuesday, public prosecutor for the CBI Amit Jindal informed the court that in August and September 2020, the CBI had forwarded the communication to the sanctioning authorities — Haryana principal secretary (home); Haryana director general of police, and Gurugram commissioner of police — for obtaining sanction, but it was still awaited.

The court observed that the best solace for this person (Kumar) will be that the accused should face prosecution and the law should take its course, but “to my utter surprise the sanctioning authorities concerned are sitting upon the request for over five months”.

Stating that that the sanctioning authorities have adopted a “lackadaisical approach” and are “yet to wake up from its deep slumber”, special judicial magistrate, CBI, Aman Inder Singh, said: “Unfortunately, this court has been pushed against the wall in making a candid observation against the authority tasked with the exercise of sanction to prosecute the accused…At an appropriate stage, appropriate proceedings under the law of the land may be initiated against that authority.”

“It has been rightly said that “be you ever so high, the law is above you”…What makes the situation more pathetic is the fact of sleeping over the request like a ‘Kumbhakarna’,” the court observed. The court said the authority has a “dogged determination” not to grant sanction. “Now, the question is whether this court should express its helplessness or it should rise to the occasion and take some steps to ensure that the law of the land holds the fields and the rule of the law does not get battering?” the court said.

The court directed the CBI to send in eight days a copy of the order to the sanctioning authority and intimated the compliance within next 10 days. The case is now listed for February 22