Justice Vikram Nath, Justice Sandeep Mehta, Supreme Court
State Police Shielding Their Own Fellow Policemen: Supreme Court Orders CBI Probe Into Custodial Death
|The Supreme Court directed the CBI to ensure a fair, transparent and expeditious investigation into the custodial death of Deva Pardhi.
The Supreme Court has directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to take over the investigation into the custodial death of a man, while remarking that the State police are shielding their own fellow policemen.
The Deceased was taken into custody by the Myana Police Station in connection with a theft and house trespass incident. The Appellants, the mother and aunt of the deceased, alleged custodial torture and sought transfer of the investigation to an independent agency.
A Bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta remarked, “These circumstances give rise to a clear inference that the investigation by the local police is not being carried out in a fair and transparent manner and there is an imminent possibility of the prosecution being subjugated by the accused if the investigation is left in the hands of the State police, who are apparently shielding their own fellow policemen owing to the camaraderie.”
Advocate Payoshi Roy represented the Appellants, while ASG Aishwarya Bhati appeared for the Respondents.
Brief Facts
The Appellants alleged the deceased was taken into custody by the police officials, where he was subjected to "intense third-degree treatment," including beating with ropes, putting chilly powder, petrol, salt and hot water on his body. These acts were allegedly aimed at coercing the deceased into confessing to a theft. He later died while in custody.
Court’s Reasoning
The Supreme Court remarked, “We are constrained to observe that despite taking note of the large number of the injuries on the body of Deva Pardhi, the victim of custodial torture, the members of the Medical Board which conducted post-mortem on his body, failed to express any opinion regarding the cause of his death. This omission seems to be deliberate rather unintentional and appears to be a direct result of influence being exercised by the local police officials.”
“We are, therefore, convinced that this is a classic case warranting invocation of the Latin maxim ‘nemo judex in causa sua’ which means that ‘no one should be a judge in his own cause’. The allegation of causing custodial death of Deva Pardhi is against the local police officials of Myana Police Station. The fact that the police officials have influenced the investigation right from the beginning is amply borne out from the circumstance that even the doctors, whoconducted autopsy of the dead body of Deva Pardhi, seem to have been pressurised/influenced,” the Bench further remarked.
The Court pointed out, “It is settled a position of law that credibility of investigating agency should be impeachable. Further, the power to transfer investigations to a certain investigating agency must be sparingly used in the interest of justice and to maintain public trust on the institution. If the investigating agency is privy to the dispute, it may raise doubts on the credibility of investigation and thus, make out a ground to transfer the investigation.”
Consequently, the Court ordered, “Therefore, we deem it fit and essential to direct that the investigation of FIR No. 341 of 2024 shall forthwith be transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation…The jurisdictional Superintendent of Police, CBI shall forthwith direct registration of the RC and will ensure fair, transparent and expeditious investigation into the custodial death of Deva Pardhi. The police officials found responsible for the custodial death shall be arrested forthwith and not later than a period of one month from today. The investigation shall be concluded within a period of 90 days from the date of the arrest of the accused.”
Accordingly, the Supreme Court disposed of the Appeal.
Cause Title: Hansura Bai & Anr. v. The State Of Madhya Pradesh & Anr. (Neutral Citation: 2025 INSC 711)
Appearance:
Appellants: AOR Vairawan A.S; Advocate Payoshi Roy, Siddhartha, S. Prabu Ramasubramanian, Nikita Sonavane, Sagar Soni, Maheshwari Mawase, Madhvi Gomathieswaran, Bharathimohan M., Avinash Kumar and V. Swetha
Respondents: ASG Aishwarya Bhati; AAG Nachiketa Joshi; AOR Yashraj Singh Bundela and Pranav Sachdeva; Advocates Radhika, Abhinav Shrivastava, Saloni, Arpit Garg, Dhruv Sharma, Shikhar Goel, Shivam Gaur and Nitin Sharma