Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court has noted its distress and concern at the casual and careless police investigation into cases of homicide and other heinous offences and at the casual attitude of the medical officers in conducting the post mortem.
A division bench comprising Justice P.V. Sanjay Kumar and Justice T. Amarnath Goud while acquitting an accused from a murder case who had been sentenced to life by a lower court, said, “Before parting with the case, we deem it appropriate to note our distress and concern as to how cases of homicide and other heinous offences are being dealt with by the police and the medical fraternity.”
The bench felt that unless steps were taken by the police and the medical fraternity to tighten their investigative processes, their investigation and findings would be of little assistance in pinning the guilt upon those culpable of heinous offences, such as rape and murder.
The bench said that the case on hand was a prime example to demonstrate casual and careless investigation. Referring to various lapses, the bench said most crucial was the failure of the investigating officer to either get the case properties subjected to chemical examination or in suppressing the report of such chemical examination.
The bench observed that the investigating officer did not adhere to the basic requisites of investigative processes, such as conducting a test identification parade in relation to the independent witness, who claimed to have seen the accused.
The bench said, “in most cases, we find that despite there being evidence involving blood and DNA, no steps are taken to at least identify the blood group of the deceased, so that the same can be corroborated with the blood-stained evidence. DNA analysis, even if undertaken, does not yield any palpable result in most cases, for some strange reason.”
The bench found that the post-mortem report does not contain a column with regard to the blood group of the deceased. The bench said that steps should be taken to send the blood of the deceased in every case to the Forensic Science Laboratory for identification of his blood group, so that the same could be used for such corroboration thereafter.The bench directed the Registry to forward a copy of the judgement to the AP and TS DGPs for future guidance and corrective action.
Sridhar Babu plea on 30th
Justice B. Siva Shankar Rao of the High Court agreed to hear the petition of former Congress minister D. Sridhar Babu on Monday seeking to quash the criminal case registered against him in Chikkadpally police station. The police had booked a case against Mr Sridhar Babu and his associates O. Sudarshan and I. Bhargav, based on a complaint from TRS leader Kishan Reddy, alleging that the trio had plotted to implicate him in a false case.
Tech-M plea to be heard
The High Court on Friday directed its Registry to post Tech Mahindra’s petition, moved in 2012, for final hearing. It had challenged the provisional attachment of Rs 822 crores of its deposits in Bank of Baroda and Andhra Bank by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with Satyam Computers case.
In 2012 a single judge had stayed the attachment order, and Tech Mahindra asked banks to return the deposits. When the banks refused, it moved a contempt case. The ED also moved an appeal against the stay, and Bank of Baroda sought clarification. On Friday a division bench comprising Justice V Ramasubra-manian and Justice A Shankar Narayana opined that it will be better to take up the main writ petition of Tech Mahindra for not having further complications in the matter.
No relief for med. students
In major setback to former students of Fatima Institute of Medical Sciences in Kadapa district, the Supreme Court dismissed a plea to accommodate them in other colleges as the Medical Council of India cancelled recognition to the college. As many as 100 students had joined the MBBS course in 2015-16 and the MCI refused to approve their admission the next year on the ground that the management had given admissions without sanction.
