Victim turned into accused in accident case
A Delhi Police officer has landed in trouble for naming the victim in an accident case as the accused while sparing the tempo van driver who was allegedly cruising on the wrong side of the carriageway when he hit the victim’s car. A Sessions court here has brought the conduct of the investigating officer to the notice of the Delhi Police Commissioner and ordered that appropriate action be taken against him within two months.
Additional Sessions Judge Vikas Dhull also set aside a magistrate court order framing charges against Ravinder Singh, the car driver, for driving in a rash and negligent manner that endangered the personal safety of others.
Mr. Dhull said: “…it is apparent that tempo driver was driving in rash and negligent manner by driving tempo on the wrong side of the carriageway and that too in the night and had caused the accident with the revisionist’s car. Any sane person could have reached the conclusion that tempo driver was driving in rash and negligent manner. However, IO of this case, for reasons best known to him, despite there being nothing on record against the revisionist, has chargesheeted the revisionist for driving in rash and negligent manner. Even the senior police officers who have forwarded the charge sheet to the court did not care to peruse the charge sheet and forwarded the same in a mechanical manner without applying their mind on the investigation conducted by the IO. The revisionist has been made to suffer for no fault of his due to shoddy and whimsical investigation conducted by the IO.”
While the case record reflected that the IO had entered the tempo as the cause of the accident in the Palam police station Daily Diary (DD) entry, the court said that for “deliberately and intentionally for extraneous consideration” Ravinder Singh was implicated.
The police lodged an FIR on the basis of statement of one of the passengers on the tempo, Ram Kripal. “Further, even the statement of injured Ram Kripal, Mohd.Illyas and driver of the tempo, Sanoj, do not make out a case for making the revisionist an accused, as from their statements itself, it is apparent that tempo driver was driving in rash and negligent manner by driving tempo on the wrong side of the carriage way and that too in the night and had caused the accident with the revisionist’s car.”
The Sessions court also ordered fresh probe in the case while setting aside the charges.
Keywords: Delhi Police, framing charges, Ravinder Singh, rash driving
