FIR lodged on complaint of ‘ghost’, HC surprised
While quashing the criminal proceeding against Purushottam Singh and four others, Justice Saurabh Shyam Shamshery said, “It is very strange that a dead person has not only lodged an FIR, but has recorded his statement before the investigating officer, and thereafter a ‘vakalatnama’ has also been filed on behalf of him in the case. It appears that all the proceedings are undertaken by a ghost.”
PRAYAGRAJ The Allahabad high court has questioned the integrity and competence of the Kushinagar police’s investigation in a false cheating and forgery case where cops not only registered an FIR on the complaint of a person who was already dead, but later also filed a charge sheet on the basis of the statement of that person.
While quashing the criminal proceeding against Purushottam Singh and four others, Justice Saurabh Shyam Shamshery said, “It is very strange that a dead person has not only lodged an FIR, but has recorded his statement before the investigating officer, and thereafter a ‘vakalatnama’ has also been filed on behalf of him in the case. It appears that all the proceedings are undertaken by a ghost.”
The court was dealing with a plea to quash a criminal case filed by one Shabd Prakash against a family of five (applicants) in a land dispute.
Justice Shamshery directed the superintendent of police (Kushinagar) to investigate the conduct of the IO and said, “The court is speechless that how investigation was conducted by the investigating officer by recording a statement of a dead person.”
An FIR was filed at the Kotwali Hata police station in Kushinagar in 2014. The name of the informant, as per the FIR, was Shabd Prakash, a man who had died on December 19, 2011.
According to official records, including a death certificate and the testimony of his wife, Shabd Prakash’s death was confirmed and documented long before the FIR was lodged.
During the course of investigation, the IO allegedly recorded the statement of the deceased as if he was alive and capable of participating in legal proceedings, and later a charge sheet was filed on November 23, 2014, naming the deceased as a prosecution witness.