Guwahati, June 21: Gauhati High Court has questioned the Assam Police for creating a post-investigation FIR, in connection with the alleged murder of a person, to justify the detention of a woman along with her infant in a police station in western Assam’s Dhubri district.
The court observed that such a procedure was “totally alien to the principles of criminal jurisprudence.”
“We are constrained to observe that from the pleadings and the documents available on record, it is clear as daylight that the officers of Bilasipara police station, namely, Shri Manash Jyoti Saikia, sub-inspector and Shri Jyotirmoy Gayan, officer-in-charge, have created a post-investigation FIR on May 31, 2023 in spite of the fact that two previous FIRs had already been registered in relation to the killing of Baser Ali. It clearly appears that the FIR was registered so as to somehow justify the arrest of Rokiya Khatun. Such a procedure is totally alien to the principles of criminal jurisprudence,” the division bench of Chief Justice Sandeep Mehta and Justice Devashis Baruah observed.
The court made the observation while hearing a writ petition filed by the brother of the detained woman who was allegedly kept in police custody for six days along with her two-year old child and a teenager over a charge of murder without registering an FIR in the matter.
The court observed that there has been blatant misuse of power by the police officials of Bilasipara police station as well as the supervising police officers in the matter.
“Multiple FIRs have been registered in relation to the same incident with systematic improvement in the case. Even the names of the accused/suspects have been substituted in the third FIR dated May 31, 2023 which, surprisingly, has been filed by none other than the officer-in-charge, Bilasipara police station, Shri Jyotirmoy Gayan himself,” the court observed.
“This action creates serious doubt on the fairness of investigation and, hence, we are compelled to direct that the DGP, Assam, shall forthwith summon the original records of this case to himself and, thereafter, shall assign further investigation thereof to an officer not below the rank of additional SP, posted in any neighbouring district of Dhubri,” the court ordered.