HC issues notice to Gurgaon Police for hiding information about the progress of investigation in the bogus vote scam, involving former Minister

CHANDIGARH NEWS, January 13, 2016: Justice Mahesh Grover of High Court of Punjab & Haryana on Wednesday issued notice to Gurgaon Police Headquarter, for hiding information about the status of investigation into the FIR registered in the year 2013, involving former Sports Minister Sukhbir Kataria. The Petitioner Om Parkash through his Advocate Pardeep Rapria pleaded before the High Court that he had registered an FIR in the year 2013 against a former State Cabinet Minister for commission of offences hampering the growth of a healthy democracy, by polluting the fair election process by means of creating more than 30000 (thirty thousand) bogus votes; with the aid of large scale impersonation, massive fabrication and forgery of documents with the ultimate aim of hijacking the democracy, in which he succeeded by winning the 2009 Haryana Assembly Elections as an independent candidate. For investigation, the SIT was formed. But even after lapse of more than 2 years the investigation is standstill as neither accused have been arrested nor any recovery have been effected. And, despite best follow-up of the matter with the SIT; the Petitioner could not get any headway into investigation. Therefore, he had to file RTI Application seeking status of investigation including diary of proceedings in investigation in the aforesaid FIR, with a view to know the progress of investigation. However, the Gurgaon Police denied the information by saying that the disclosure of information would affect the ongoing investigation.

Mr. Pardeep Rapria, Advocate, argued before the High Court that after the advent of the transparency law, i.e., RTI Act, there is no point in denying access information about the progress of investigation to the complainant, as it not only denies the fundamental right to have access to the public documents, but also amounts to the violation of other fundamental rights, which are infringed by police during investigation. The denial of access to police diary leads to lack of transparency in the criminal investigation and also lack of accountability of the Investigation Officer for faulty and shoddy investigation, which is often actuated by extraneous consideration like corruption, political interference etc.

The disclosure of the Police Diary will have far reaching ramifications not only for the right of the citizens to seek information about the police functioning, but also it will have bearing on the manner in which the law enforcement agencies conduct investigation. The disclosure will curb the corrupt practices adopted by the Investigating Agencies. High Court has directed the State of Haryana to file reply by 06.05.2016.