The Bombay High Court has expressed disapproval of the police machinery and forensic experts showing "utter disregard" for compliance with the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) during the collection of biological and non-biological evidence and its preservation to avoid degradation in serious cases related to sexual offenses.
'Insensitive attitude by all stakeholders'
A division bench of Justices Vibha Kankanwadi and Abhay Waghwase of the Aurangabad bench of the high court also urged stakeholders to be sensitive to the issue. They directed the State government to organise a periodic sensitisation programme for the authorities concerned.
“This reflects a very insensitive attitude by all stakeholders like medical experts, police machinery, etc.,” said the bench.
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It added, “We take the opportunity to bring to the notice of the State as well as the prosecution that all stakeholders, such as police, medical experts, forensic experts, and even prosecutors, should be sensitive to the need for proper collection, sampling, preservation, and safe custody to rule out the possibility of diminishing and/or degrading the quality of evidence.”
Court tells authorities keep themselves updates on guidelines
The court also asked the authorities to keep themselves updated on the guidelines issued by the Health and Home Ministry of the government of India.
The directions were issued by the court while hearing a plea filed by a 21-year-old man from Parbhani challenging his conviction and life sentence imposed by the trial court for allegedly raping a minor in 2018.
The court set aside his conviction, noting that the prosecution had failed to prove the case against him beyond a reasonable doubt.
Man claims falsely implicated
The prosecution claimed that the man accosted a six-year-old girl when she was returning home and allegedly raped her in an abandoned building. After she narrated the incident, her father lodged a complaint.
The man claimed that he was falsely implicated. He also claimed that there were lapses and deviations by the medical experts, police machinery, and forensic experts while collecting evidence, hence rendering the same doubtful.
'Sorry state of affairs'
Observing the non-compliance of SOP in collecting evidence, the high court said, “Such is the sorry state of affairs in handling muddemal (articles seized by police during the probe) in a serious case of rape on a minor.”
The judges remarked that though a serious offense was committed on a minor, due to major lapses and defects, the entire evidence has been rendered doubtful. Hence, the conviction cannot be based on this evidence.
The high court has asked the State government to formulate suitable guidelines to be followed while conducting test identification parade in cases pertaining to the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.
