'Give Prosecutors Cases, Not Courts': Special Public Prosecutor Pradeep Gharat On Fixing India’s Trial System

Mumbai: With issues ranging from a slow-moving justice system and delayed trials to a low conviction rate and an unorganised system, investigating agencies look for a strong hand to fight complex legal battles. Advocate Pradeep Gharat is one such Special Public Prosecutor who has never disappointed the agencies. In a chat with FPJ's Charul Shah Joshi, Gharat spoke about his journey and flaws in the system.

Q: How did you choose to become a public prosecutor?

A: When I was practising on the defence side, I used to think, what are these prosecutors doing? They were not preparing for the case the way it was required. Had I been the prosecutor in their place, I would have done this and that. This was what I thought when I became a prosecutor.

Q. How did you come to be appointed as a special public prosecutor in the Telgi fake stamp paper scam?

A. If you know, Anna Hazare had filed a writ petition in the High Court. SS Puri, the then retired DG was made the Special DG of that SIT. Fortunately for me, he chose me for it.

Q. What challenge did you have when you were given the hit-and-run involving Salman Khan?

A. By the time I was offered the Special Public Prosecutor post, several witnesses had been examined and many of them turned hostile. Rakesh Maria, then Police Commissioner and the officer in charge, approached me and said they wanted me in this case. So, I accepted the offer.

Q. How much pressure did you have and what was your strategy?

A. I used to concentrate on the documents before me and see how best I could derive from those documents. I don't bring in the image of whoever he may be. When I tried the Salman Khan case, I never considered that Salman Khan was facing trial. But my approach was that some person was liable for an accident. That was my approach.

Q. In all these cases, what have you seen the role of investigating officer and collection of evidence

A. Since I started contact with the police, I have always told all the investigation officers to go on recording things as they take place. Don't try to give them colour. Make an honest record of everything. I may recommend that they take the help of legal experts or advocates at the time of investigation.

Q. Where do you see the flow is? Investigation of a crime or its presentation or the present system of public prosecutor?

A. During the course of trials, cases go to a particular court, but not to particular prosecutors. Hence, what happens is that whoever is the prosecutor in the court attends to the case. They don't acquaint themselves with the facts and the law. Their approach is very casual. No research, no preparation. Instead of giving prosecutors courts, they should be given cases.

Q. The role of modern technology or, we can say, equipment, how they can be useful and are not being used?

A. Scientific evidence is very helpful in such cases nowadays. Call data records are very important evidence. Google Maps is there. Suppose your mobile is on, it records everything, including the entire journey. This helps a lot.

Q. What about evidence of social media?

A. Evidence such as chats on WhatsApp is believable because of end-to-end encryption. But as far as other social media is concerned, they should be very cautious, particularly in today's world of Artificial Intelligence. Anything can be tampered with or created.

Q. What about delays in the judiciary?

A. Previously, once a trial started, it used to proceed on a day-to-day basis. But now it is not possible. Judges also do not concentrate on only one case because if a trial goes on for one month or a year, they are answerable to the High Court while submitting their reports. Very few judges may not think in these terms or may be interested in conducting and completing trials by concentrating only on those trials.

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