New Delhi: A murder accused who masterminded his disappearance by getting himself declared dead was taken note of by the Delhi High Court on Friday which criticised the police Delhi and Uttar Pradesh for indulging in a blame game rather than collectively trying to track him down.
The accused had allegedly connived with his family members and some cops to get an unclaimed body identified as his and jumped bail during pendency of his appeal against his conviction.
"We find that both of them (Delhi and UP police) are trying to find fault with each other in the manner of investigation and steps which were required to be taken to expose and unearth the well-hatched conspiracy which had led to the identification of a dead body to be that of appellant Rajbir.
"Be that as it may, instead of shifting blame to each other, we wish Delhi and UP police should put their collective efforts not only to trace out appellant, but also to unearth conspiracy and persons involved in the same as this a very serious issue where appellant after being released on bail by this court avoided clutches of the law and the process he has masterminded the said conspiracy..," the court said.
A special bench of justices Kailash Gambhir and Sunita Gupta asked the Delhi and UP police to appoint a senior officer each "to make efforts to unearth the conspiracy and to work towards apprehension of the accused-appellant Rajbir".
The officers have been asked to file a fresh status report after carrying out the exercise as directed by the court, which also issued fresh non-bailable warrants against Rajbir.
The bench made the observations and passed the order after perusing the status reports filed by both agencies which have blamed each other for the situation.
The court was hearing the appeal of Rajbir against his conviction by a trial court here in a murder case.
During pendency of his appeal in court, he had obtained bail and then went missing.
Despite repeated summons when the court had failed to get his presence in the appeal case, it had decided to direct the police in Ghaziabad to trace him since he belonged to that district. Later, the UP Police informed the court that the accused is dead.
UP Police had said the family of the accused had identified the clothes found on the body as those worn by Rajbir. The body was handed over to them and they cremated it and got a death certificate in his name.
However, Public Prosecutor Sunil Sharma, appearing on behalf of Delhi Police, had questioned the basis on which the body was identified, that is the clothes, which led the court to order comparing of the fingerprints of the body with that of the accused.
On comparing the fingerprints, those on record did not match with that of the body which was identified as that of the accused by his family members.
Shocked by what the probe had revealed, the high court directed the UP Police to conduct a thorough investigation into the whole matter including the role played by the family members as well as the police officers who had handed over the unidentified body to the accused's relatives.
