A local court here rejected plea of accused in a case of ‘job scandal’ in police department, seeking release of their service books.
The court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Srinagar, Gowhar Majid Dalal, observed that the investigation in the case has not been done with promptness and it lacks fairness.
The court said that the magnitude of fake and fraud appointments is such that it needs thorough, comprehensive, scrupulous and transparent investigation.
The court observed that there are more important documents which are official and should have been seized by the Investigating Agency. “But they failed to seize the documents, besides the service records. The applicants (accused) are drawing the salary from the date of basic appointment which has been shown as fake and the Investigating Officer has not taken any effort to ascertain how the salaries of these applicants have been drawn,” the court observed.
It added that some documents could have been easily available in the office and some could be ascertained and seized from the other departments especially treasury.
The court said that appointments have been made in 2000, whereas the case has been registered in 2015. “From the date of appointment till the registration of the case, all the DDOs have slept over the genuineness of the service record, at the time of annual entry in the service record,” it said.
“The police have not arrayed the officers at the helm of affairs at that point of time as accused in the case, nor have they been thoroughly interrogated by the investigating agency till date.
“This also shadows doubt upon the credibility of the investigation. The officers at the helm of affairs at that point of time are roaming free, as the fake appointment scandal has been done within their knowledge and they have reason to believe about the same. They were the police officers not below the rank of SSPs and were supposed to be vigilant.
The court directed Investigation Officer to expedite the investigation in the interests of justice.