The police went on an overdrive by adding new Sections to pending FIRs and registering fresh ones, all in a day, at the instruction of senior police officers, giving the criminal manual a go-by.
Within 24 hours after the Supreme Court said it had no confidence in Bihar Police's investigation into 16 shelter homes, the Bihar Police proved the court right once again on Wednesday.
The police went on an overdrive by adding new Sections to pending FIRs and registering fresh ones, all in a day, at the instruction of senior police officers, giving the criminal manual a go-by.
This enthusiasm to plug its lapses proved costly for the state police as the court was left in no doubt that such "loopholes" had already weakened the prosecution case. A three-judge bench proceeded to direct the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to examine the 16 homes in addition to its probe into the Muzaffarpur Girls Home.
The state came prepared with a letter written by Inspector General (Provision) Patna addressed to Gopal Singh, the lawyer representing Bihar in the matter. Going by what the court said a day ago on serious charges under Indian Penal Code (IPC) being omitted, the IG informed that directions have been issued to the IO in each case to add grievous Sections of causing hurt, financial misappropriation, stringent Sections under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and Juvenile Justice Act, with effect from November 27.
In the case of Short Stay Home, Madhepura and Kaushal Kutir, Patna, fresh FIRs were registered on Tuesday soon after SC pulled up the police for registering FIRs against five out of 17 homes flagged to be of "grave concern" in a social audit conducted by Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in April this year. With regard to Sewa Kutir, Gaya (a beggar home for adults) and specialised adoption agencies at Madhubani, Patna and Kaimur, the police closed the case despite TISS report claiming that conditions in these places were "life-threatening".
Showing the letter, Gopal Singh told the top court that instead of 24 hours, the state has taken only 12 hours to rectify all its faults. After the first look of the IG's letter, the bench, comprising of Justices Madan B Lokur, S Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta, said, "Can a higher officer of police direct the investigating officer to add new offences when nothing has happened in the case overnight? Can such a direction be permitted under law because then, a higher officer can even ask the IO to close the case. Your decision will create more loopholes in the case and problems in the way of prosecuting the accused."
With the case of shelter homes already becoming a political issue in Bihar, Singh argued that by handing over the 16 cases to the CBI, a doubt will be cast on the police, to which the bench replied, "We have seen what you have done. If the state government had done its job properly, we wouldn't have decided to transfer the cases to CBI."
CBI Special public prosecutor N Raghavacharyulu conveyed the approval of CBI Acting Director M Nageshwara Rao to undertake investigation of all 16 homes. He informed that charge sheet in the Muzaffarpur case will be lodged by December 7. The SC directed the Bihar government to extend manpower and logistics support to the CBI probe team and asked the CBI to furnish its first status report of the investigation in court, detailing the probe done till January 31, 2019.
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