Aurangabad: The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court has taken suo moto cognisance of investigating officers making copy-paste statements of witnesses in serious offences and has asked the Maharashtra government to come out with specific guidelines.
A bench comprising Justice Vibha Kankanwadi and Justice Sanjay Deshmukh was hearing a plea filed by five persons seeking quashment of proceedings against them in an alleged abetment to the suicide of a 17-year-old youth.
High Court wondered if witnesses were even called by police for recording a statement
The bench, after going through the entire charge-sheet, noticed that even in serious offence, the investigating officer has literally made copy-paste of the statements of witnesses and wondered if the witnesses were even called by the police for recording a statement.
Even paragraphs start with same words and end with same words, High Court noted
“Even the paragraphs start with the same words and end with the same words. The culture of copy-paste statements is dangerous and may, in certain cases unnecessarily, give advantage to the accused persons. In such circumstances, the seriousness of the genuine case may get vanished. Two witnesses cannot give statement in identical fashion,” the bench said.
High time to take cognizance of the issue suo moto: High Court
The bench, while taking suo motu cognisance of the issue, said that the court had in one more matter made observations in respect of the copy-paste statements and when the court is coming across with such copy-paste statements in serious offence, “it is high time to take cognizance of the issue suo moto and to consider, as to what are those short comings or difficulties for the investigating officer/officers when they record such copy-paste statements.”
The bench said that the charge against the accused persons is that they have abetted the commission of suicide by minor, which is a very serious matter, and with the story in the First Information Report (FIR) it is much more serious and therefore, it was not inclined to grant any relief to the applicants.
Want the State to come out with specific guidelines: High Court
“When even in such serious matters if this copy-paste method is adopted, then it is not a good indication for the criminal justice system and therefore, we are taking cognizance and want the State to come out with specific guidelines to the investigating officers and also in respect of, how to record the statements,” the bench said while declining relief to the accused person.
The bench also appointed advocate Mukul Kulkarni as Amicus Curiae and said that he may collect data and suggest measures to be taken by the state government of Maharashtra to avoid such situations of copy-paste and to overall improve the quality of investigation.
The matter would be further heard on June 27.