The lack of space at police stations to park vehicles that are crucial evidence in criminal cases was highlighted during trial in the Nirbhaya case.
Defence lawyers latched on to a weak point — that the bus bearing registration no. DL-1P-C-0149 — which was the crime scene in the case, was not kept in a secure place or within the premises of a police station.
They claimed that the police, to bolster their case against the accused, planted DNA evidence inside the bus that was parked at Thyagraj Stadium’s parking lot.
‘Cops avoiding media’
According to them, the bus was sent to the stadium instead of being kept at the Vasant Vihar police station to avoid media attention and to be able to plant evidence easily.
The court, however, termed it a “bald allegation” as the defence lawyers did not back these charges with specific assertions “to cast a doubt in our mind”.
Senior advocate Siddharth Luthra pointed to the judgment in the Manjit Singh case of 2014, in which the Delhi High Court had ordered the police for data regarding case properties with the police.
“The High Court noted that there was an accumulation of 2,86,741 case properties, including 25,547 vehicles, out of which as many as 2,479 properties are lying in public places outside the police stations. Given the state of affairs, the submission put forth by Mr. Luthra is acceptable,” the court acknowledged Mr. Luthra's argument.
The court concluded that since there was dearth of space inside police stations in Delhi, the use of Thyagraj Stadium in this case did not necessarily mean that there was any mala fide intention on the part of the investigating agency.
