Court on Own Motion vs The Superintendent of Police and Others

Deepak Gupta, C.J.

On 19.08.2015 we had directed notice of the petition be sent to the Superintendent of Police, North Tripura, the SDM, Kanchanpur and the O.C. of the Kanchanpur Police Station. The Registrar (Vigilance) was also directed to obtain the comments of the SDJM, Kanchanpur.

The SDJM, Kanchanpur in his report has stated that a complaint was filed in his Court on 29.04.2015 by the victim Sumitra Nath in which she alleged that she was only 15 years of age. According to the complainant her father was admitted in hospital. Her mother was attending to her father. Her uncles and her grand-father forcibly took her to the ''kalibari'' temple and got her married to her neighbour. The said complaint was forwarded by the SDJM, Kanchanpur to the Police Station Kanchanpur and on the basis of this complaint case No. 2015/KCP/045 under Section 10 of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act was registered on 30th May, 2015. The I.O. was directed by the SDJM to submit his report in the matter on 24.06.2015.

As per the report on 01.06.2015 the victim girl Sumitra Nath alias Ruma was brought before the SDJM for recording her statement under Section 164(5) of the Cr.P.C. The statement was recorded and till this stage we find no fault in the manner in which the police conducted the matter.

On 24.06.2015 the I.O. of the case submitted some report. The case was then adjourned to 23.07.2015. The I.O. did not submit any report on that date and the case was then fixed on 10.08.2015. In the meantime, it appears that a bail application was filed in the court of the learned Sessions Judge, North Tripura, Dharmanagar and he vide his order dated 03.08.2015 directed that the record of the case be produced before him on 11th August, 2015.

This girl who claims to be 15 years of her age and who states that she was forcibly got married to her neighbour by her close relatives, was not sent to any children home or placed in protective custody by the investigating officer. No steps were taken by the investigating officer to arrest the accused persons. It is only after the bail application was filed in the Court of the Sessions Judge that the victim was sent to the Children Home at Dharmanagar.

The Sessions Judge, Dharmanagar passed an order on 12.08.2015 on the anticipatory bail application rejecting the same. This is a detailed order and the petition for grant of anticipatory bail was rejected by the learned Sessions Judge. Para 6 and 11 of the order which are relevant for our purpose read as follows:-

"[6] Allegation against the accused persons is very serious. Section 10 of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 provides punishment for solemnizing a child marriage and such punishment may extend to imprisonment for 2 years with fine to the extent of Rs. 1,00,000/- and the offence is non-bailable. This is a special Act intended to eliminate the menace of child marriage. Both the accused-petitioners are close relatives and guardians of the complainant and it was their duty to protect her from such evil consequence. Instead of protecting her the accused-petitioners had victimised her.

[11] It has transpired from the complaint that there are other persons involved in the commission of the offence. Police must investigate the matter seriously and bring all the offenders to book. It also appears to me that the accused-petitioners are the family members of the complainant and as such there is likelihood that she may be tortured at home. Police is to provide protection to her. If it is found that her parents are also perpetrators of the offence the IO shall take assistance of the Child Welfare Committee of North Tripura District to provide shelter to the complainant victim in a Children''s Home. Communicate this order immediately to the IO. Send back the CD. IO is to expedite the investigation and submit report."

We appreciate the directions given by the learned Sessions Judge. This is the approach which a Judicial Officer should have while dealing with matters especially crimes of sexual nature where minor children are involved.

The Superintend of Police, North Tripura has also filed reply and has stated that after getting the entire record on 20th August, 2015, the Superintendent of Police has made a special reference transferring the investigation from S.I. Bhabatosh Talukdar to Sub Divisional Police Officer, Kanchanpur, Sri Asish Debnath, TPS Grade-II.

We request this officer to complete the investigation at the earliest and to ensure that the investigation is taken to its logical conclusion.

Sri Bhabatosh Talukar is present in Court. We have repeatedly asked him why he did not take any action from 1st June when the statement of the victim girl was recorded under Section 164(5) Cr.P.C. to either put the victim under protective custody of a Children''s Home or to arrest the accused till their anticipatory bail application was dismissed. He has given us no answer. According to Shri Debnath, learned Addl. P.P. as per this officer since the father of the victim claimed that the victim was more than 15 years of age or was a major he became confused and did not know what to do. If a police officer of this rank is going to get confused on issues of date of birth, we wonder how such police officer will ever deal with a rape case or a murder case. This explanation on the face of it appears to be false because in the affidavit filed by this officer there is no such reference and further more in his affidavit he has stated that he on 30th May, 2015 had seized Xerox copy of the affidavit of birth certificate of Sumitra Nath. What prevented this officer from collecting the date of birth from the office of the Registrar of Births & Deaths or from her school records? There is no explanation in this regard. The manner in which the investigation has been conducted by this officer shows that either he was hand in glove with the accused or he is totally incompetent.

The Superintendent of Police, North Tripura has already taken action of transferring the case. So we have nothing further to say. However a copy of this order shall be sent to the Director General of Police, Tripura to initiate appropriate departmental proceedings against Sri Bhabatosh Talukdar who has let this poor victim girl remain in the custody of the accused for more than two months despite the fact that she was making complaints day in and day out that she is being tortured. Finally she had to write a letter to one of us (the Chief Justice) and then this action has been taken of transferring the case.

Before parting with the case, we cannot help but comment on the affidavit filed by the SDM, Kanchanpur. Relevant portion of the affidavit i.e. Para 3, 4 and 5 read as follows:-

"3. That, after receiving the order of the Hon''ble High Court of Tripura along with the Notice, I came to know the fact of the case. Before that neither the police department, nor the local people, nor anybody also inform me about the matter.

That, at the time of incident the ADC election was going on and since I was engaged in the said Election duty perhaps for that reason matter was not came to my knowledge.

That due to such mistake on my part, I expressed my unconditional apology before this Hon''ble High court."

Kanchanpur is a very small town. This SDM states that he was not even aware about the facts of this case till he received a notice from this Court. According to him ADC election was going on and he was engaged in election duty and perhaps for that reason the case may not have come to his knowledge.

In a democracy elections are important but merely because elections are being held does not mean that law and order issues are not to be looked into. This officer is the administrative head of the Sub-Division. He supposed to be known what is happening in his Division. However since this officer has apologized, we do not want to take any harsh action. However, a copy of this order shall also be sent to the Chief Secretary to the Govt. of Tripura for placing it on record of this Officer.

The Director General of Police shall file affidavit in this Court within 3(three) months from today reporting what action has been taken on the basis of the orders passed by this Court.

Since the matter has now been transferred to another official and the accused have been arrested we do not want to say anything further on the merits of the case.

The case is disposed of and shall now be listed on 18th November, 2015 only for the purpose of consideration of the affidavit filed by the Director General of Police.