The prosecution’s failure to verify accused Vishal Jangotra’s alibi during the probe in the Kathua rape and murder case led to his acquittal, the special court said as it blamed the Jammu Crime Branch for withholding the best evidence against him.
“This court is of the opinion that all this goes to showthere is a big lacuna in the prosecution case against Vishal Jangotra in thisregard as prosecution failed to verify genuinely the plea of alibi raised byaccused Vishal Jangotra at the first instance during the investigation of thecase,” it said in the detailed order.
Jangotra was the only one among the seven accused to beacquitted by the court. Three, including his father Sanji Ram who was the keyconspirator, were given life sentences.
The court also raised the issue of the prosecution failingto question Inspector Kewal Kishore who had done most of the investigationregarding Jangotra’s alleged role in the crime. “Almost all investigatingofficers had deposed that investigation qua Vishal was done by Inspector KewalKishore and it was essential for the prosecution to make a foolproof caseagainst accused Vishal Jangotra to examine Inspector Kewal Kishore in thiscase,” the court observed.
It said that for the reasons best know to the prosecution,the inspector was not examined in this case “which is certainly a lacunain the prosecution.”
The Crime Branch, however, contended that Kishore was a partof a team that had undertaken seizures in this case and other members haddeposed and recorded their statements before the court.
Pointing out some elementary mistakes in the investigation,the court observed that Sub Inspector UrfanWani categorically deposed thatbefore arresting Jangotra from Uttar Pradesh’s Meeranpur, they had not enquiredfrom his college or his examination centre whether he had regularly appearedfor his examination that started from 9 January 2018.
“He (Wani) further admitted the fact that till17.03.2018, there was no report of any handwriting expert in this regard and hedid not record the statement of any official or principal, teacher, examiner orstudent regarding absence of the accused,” the court said.
Wani in his deposition also stated that he had recorded thestatement of Jangotra’s landlady, Suman Sharma, in Urdu “… And he doesnot know whether Suman Sharma knew Urdu language or not,” it observed.
In Jammu and Kashmir, Urdu is an official language used bythe police to record statements of the accused as well as witnesses.
The court also pointed out that the investigating officialhad not verified the authenticity of a news report aired by a private channelwhich claimed that Jangotra was present in Meeranpur on the day of theincident, based on a footage obtained from an SBI ATM.
“No statement of any official of SBI Meeranpur wasrecorded regarding this. He (Wani) further admitted that on confiscating thehard disk pertaining to the ATM of Meeranpur, the said hard disk was neversealed from any magistrate,” it added.
The Crime Branch had seized the disk and approached thelocal magistrate who refused to be a part of the investigation. The policeofficers later approached the Meeranpur police station and informed about theseizure. On arrival, the disk was produced before a magistrate and resealed.
The court said Wani, during the investigation, had seized apractical sheet dated January 14, 2018 which should have been produced beforethe court.
“But this practical sheet was never produced by theCrime Branch, Jammu before this court. Accordingly, it is observed that thebest evidence has been withheld by Crime Branch Jammu.
“Accordingly, an adverse inference is drawn and as suchin view of the other evidence on record, it is held that accused VishalJangotra during the time of commission of crime was present at Meeranpur,Muzaffarnagar UP, and not at Kathua,” the court concluded.The special court said the prosecution hasfailed to discharge its burden of leading convincing evidence to the effectthat the evidence led by Jangotra on his ‘plea of alibi’ is wrong or forged andfabricated.