Delhi court acquits man accused of carrying ammunition for lack of evidence

A Delhi court has acquitted a man accused of carrying ammunition in his bag at Delhi airport for "lack of evidence", saying that the investigating officer did not collect CCTV footage and other material evidence in the case. The court was hearing a case filed by the DIAL security that was registered on August 6, 2019.

In the case, 4 live cartridges were allegedly recovered from the baggage of the accused during a security check at Delhi airport while travelling to Lucknow. While acquitting Rajesh Prasad Mishra, Metropolitan Magistrate Bharti Garg of Dwarka court said that the prosecution failed to establish the charge against the accused owing to various loopholes in the conduct of the investigation and substantial inconsistencies in the evidence of material witnesses.

Raising serious questions on the conduction manner of the investigation and approach of the Investigating Officer (IO), the court said, "The laxity shown on the part of IO to even visit the spot of the incident to gather substantive evidence by conducting fair and proper investigation speaks volume about the partiality in inquiry undertaken by him."

"The IO has deliberately not complied with the basic rules of investigation, the benefit of which must accrue to the accused," the court observed.

"Further throwing the prosecution case from the frying pan into the fire is the conduct of a defective investigation in the present case. It would be rather safe to say that there has been no investigation at all in a true sense, let alone defective investigation," the court said.

"At the cost of reiteration, it may be observed that the IO never visited the spot of the incident and made the entire case against the accused merely on the statement of Jayati Sood at the police station, which is highly deplorable. The material piece of evidence such as the bag and baggage tag has not been seized. The CCTV footage of the incident has also not been procured despite being available," the court observed. The court said that the entire case has been prepared at the police station solely on the statement of Jayati Sood which does not inspire the confidence of this court corroboration, so as to rest the conviction of the accused merely on its basis. As a sequitur, the accused stands entitled to benefit of the doubt.

The accused had disputed the recovery of ammunition from his baggage."

It is noteworthy that apart from the substantive evidence of the bag, the IO also did not seize the baggage ID slip. In other words, there is absolutely nothing on record to establish the link between the baggage ID mentioned in the complaint," the court said in its order.

The court said that this is not the case where the alleged ammunition was taken from the physical possession of the accused while the bag was with him, rather, the check-in baggage had gone for screening separate from the accused and thus, it was essential on the part of the prosecution to tender the said bag and baggage tag in evidence.

However, prosecution witness Jayati Sood did not mention anything about the baggage tag in her court testimony. It has further not come on record as to when and by whom the boarding pass of the accused was seized from him. There is no documentary evidence either in the form of a seizure list or alike, the court noted in the order of August 31. (ANI)