RAMESHWAR KUMAR Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This writ petition has been preferred by the father of late Ms. Sumanlata under Article 226 of the Constitution of India and section 482 of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 (Cr.P.C.) for issuance of directions for conducting fair investigation and for the registration of FIR under sections 302/120-b/467/471/34 IPC against respondent nos.8 to 12 .

(2.) The brief facts of the case are that the deceased, Ms. Sumanlata got married to the respondent no.8 on 06.04.2006 and had two children out of the said marriage. On 26.06.2015 at about 12:30 a.m., the petitioner received a call from his relatives that his daughter had committed suicide in her matrimonial home. However, the petitioner was unable to contact the inlaws of his daughter as their mobile phones were switched off.

(3.) The same night, the petitioner received a call from the mobile phone of Sub Inspector Satender Singh Rathi, Police Station Ranjeet Nagar, New Delhi, the then Investigating Officer (IO), who informed the petitioner that his daughter had committed suicide and that her body was lying in the mortuary of Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital, Hari Nagar, New Delhi. Upon making his apprehensions clear to the said IO that his daughter's death was not merely a suicide, the latter reassured the petitioner that the postmortem of the body will be conducted in his presence, for which reason, they could wait for 72 hours for him to reach Delhi from Punjab, to facilitate proper investigation of the matter. However, upon reaching the hospital, the petitioner came to know that the postmortem had already been conducted on the body of the deceased, i.e., within an hour of the hospital receiving the body. According to the postmortem report, the body was sent by SI Pradeep Sharma, who provided the inquest papers to the doctor at about 01:40 p.m. on 27.06.2015 and the doctors started autopsy at about 02:00 p.m, which was completed an hour later (i.e. 3 pm). The manner of death was "determined" concluded to be suicide. However, when the petitioner directly reached the matrimonial house of his daughter on 27.06.2015, he noticed that the family was preparing for the cremation of the body. Upon his protest that the death occurred under suspicious circumstances, the police officials on the scene threatened him with dire consequences and forced him to leave. In this manner, the police permitted the cremation of the body following the postmortem, without conducting any further investigation apropos the death and thereby destroying crucial evidence.