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Mohali cop in dock after he turns hostile in drugs case
A Mohali court has ordered legal action against station house officer for allegedly giving false evidence and turning hostile in a drug seizure case that led to the suspect’s acquittal
A Mohali court has ordered legal action against Phase-1 station house officer (SHO) inspector Shiv Deep Singh for allegedly giving false evidence and turning hostile in a drug seizure case that led to the suspect’s acquittal.
Additional and district sessions judge Parminder Singh Grewal has fixed the next date of hearing on November 18 to initiate legal proceedings against the cop under relevant sections of the Criminal Procedure Code.
The case dates back to November 2019, when one Mukesh Kumar, alias Kaka, was arrested from near the old bus stand in Phase 9 for carrying restricted drugs (1,080 tablets of lomotil and 300 tablets of alpranof). A case was registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS) Act at the Phase 8 police station, where Shiv Deep Singh was stationed as the SHO at the time.
The SHO was a prosecution witness when the case went to trial. The judge said that the court is of considered view that inspector Shiv Deep Singh did not support the prosecution case, and on the request of the additional public prosecutor, the court declared him hostile on the ground that “he was suppressing the truth with regard to facts deposed by him before the police in the shape of his statement recorded during the course of the investigation”.
“Inspector Shiv Deep Singh has stated incorrect and untrue facts in his examination in chief with respect to the role played by him during the course of the investigation, which prima facie amounts to the offence made punishable for giving of false evidence,” the court observed.
The court said that if the additional public prosecutor for the state had not taken due care and caution at the time of recording the testimony of the cop during the trial, then the latter might have demolished the entire case of the prosecution regarding the recoveries made from the suspect.
The judge has issued a show-cause notice to the inspector as well as the court ahlmad to separate the papers, including the copy of the challan, the copy of the aforesaid statement of the inspector recorded during trial and the copy of the judgment.
