The Kerala High Court has directed the State Police Chief (SPC) to ensure that material collected and statements made by the arrested accused during the initial stage of investigation are not disclosed to the public by the investigation officers.
The court observed that in a criminal case, it was necessary to keep the material received by the police in secret until the investigation had advanced much, to avoid any sort of misguiding or tampering in the investigation.
The court said that it was not a healthy practice for the investigation agency to disclose to the public the statements given by the arrested accused during the investigation, particularly when the other accused were yet to be arrested.
If the statements of the accused arrested were made public, the yet-to-be accused would naturally get an opportunity to come across the statement and the trend of the investigation. This would naturally result in giving statements by the other accused in accordance with the situation. In such event, the investigation agency would not be able to effectively question the other accused.
The court made the observations while disposing of a petition seeking to conduct the probe into the sexual assault on a film star under the supervision of the Additional Director General of Police. The court added that questioning of the accused persons together and also separately in a skilled and scientific manner was indispensable to have an effective investigation in cases where there were “no ocular witnesses.”
In such cases, it was necessary to keep the material received from the accused or from other accused secret at least at the initial stage of investigation.
According to petitioner Maneesha M. Chathely of Thrissur, in this case, leaking out the statements given by the arrested accused had helped the other accused to give similar statement, hampering the investigation.
The court asked the SPC to go through the allegations of the petitioner in a representation given to the SPC and take a decision, if found necessary.
