Gurugram school murder: CBI court raps govt, police over delay in prosecuting four cops

Rapping the state government and the state police, the special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court of Haryana on Tuesday said “they are sleeping like a Khumbhakarna” instead of discharging their statutory duties, over the delay in granting prosecution sanction for four Gurugram police personnel in the school murder case

Rapping the state government and the state police, the special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court of Haryana on Tuesday said “they are sleeping like a Khumbhakarna” instead of discharging their statutory duties, over the delay in granting prosecution sanction for four Gurugram police personnel in the school murder case. The court directed that the requisite action be taken within 10 days.

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Aman Inder Singh, special judicial magistrate of the CBI court in Panchkula on Tuesday, observed, “What makes the situation more pathetic is the fact of sleeping over the request of CBI like a Kumbhakarna instead of discharging its statutory duties without delay.”

The court observed that the authorities are not taking action to protect their colleagues and at the same time, they are not rejecting the request for sanction, fearing judicial scrutiny.

The CBI had written to the home principal secretary of the Haryana government, seeking a request sanction to prosecute assistant commissioner of police, Birem Singh, on August 19, 2020. On September 30, the CBI had written to the director general of Haryana Police for obtaining requisite sanction to prosecute inspector Narender Singh Khatana and sub-inspector Subhash Chand, but the permission is still pending.

On January 6, the CBI filed a supplementary chargesheet against four Gurugram police officers for falsely implicating a school bus conductor and for fabricating documents against him in the 2017 school murder case.

The probe agency, which had named a juvenile as the main accused and filed a chargesheet in February 2018, said in the supplementary chargesheet that “there is sufficient evidence for prosecution” against four police officials who allegedly implicated the bus conductor and accused him of murder and sexual assault.

Birem Singh, then ACP, Narender Khatana, then station house officer of Bhondsi police station, Shamsher Singh, sub-inspector and the investigating officer for two days, and Subhash Chand, ASI, are the four officials named.

“The accused four police officials virtually made life hell for Ashok Kumar and put his entire family on the brink of starvation. The incident gave a bad name to him in society and put a blot on his career, which will take time to vanish. The best solace for this person in the scenario will be that accused person who were responsible for his plight should face prosecution and the law should take its course, but to my utter surprise, the concerned sanctioning authorities are sitting upon the request of sanction,” the court observed in its order.

“More than five months have elapsed and the sanctioning authority is yet to wake up from its deep slumber,” the court observed.

Sushil Tekriwal, counsel for the victim, said, “The government is obliged to provide sanction to the suspects. The law has to take its own course. The constitutional duty conferred on the state warrants that the accused not be spared and be brought to the subject of law. The delay in providing sanction is akin to denying justice.”

The case is now listed for February 22.