In the matter of Navreet Singh’s death during the tractor rally on Republic Day, the Delhi High Court directed the Uttar Pradesh Police to handover important material related to the case including the original X-Ray, post-mortem video and inquest report to Delhi Police, reported the media.
According to LiveLaw, the Single-judge Bench of Justice Yogesh Khanna also directed Delhi Police to retain the material in safe custody till further orders. The matter will now be heard on March 17.
Navreet Singh’s grandfather had approached the Delhi High Court seeking a direction for a court appointed and court monitored special investigation team comprising police officers with a “demonstrably impeccable record of professional integrity, honesty and efficiency” to carry out time bound investigation into his grandson’s death.
Delhi Police has claimed that Navreet Singh died in an accident as his tractor overturned. But his grandfather and some eyewitnesses have alleged that his tractor overturned only after he suffered an ante-mortem head injury due to a bullet shot on the head by the police.
On February 11, the State submitted before the High Court that the Delhi Police has “no hesitation” in sharing information/documents/
In the next hearing, on February 26, an affidavit was filed by the SHO, Police Station Bilaspur, Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, under whose jurisdiction the postmortem was conducted stating that Navreet did not die of a gunshot wound. It read, “…as per the opinion of the Panel of doctors conducting post-mortem, the cause of death of Navreet Singh is shock and hemorrhage as a result of ante-mortem head injury. The death is not due to any gunshot injury.”
Yesterday on March 4, Delhi’ Standing Counsel Rahul Mehra apprised the court that they had made several requests to the UP police in this regard following the previous court order, but they failed to hand over relevant reports, according to LiveLaw. Advocate Vrinda Grover, appearing for the petitioner grandfather, agreed with Mehra and said that Uttar Pradesh Police had been non cooperative.
However, LiveLaw quoted Standing Counsel Garima Prashad (appearing for UP Police and the Chief Medical Officer) saying, “We are ready and willing anytime to provide and have provided the inquest report, and post mortem report already. The only things not provided are the X-Ray plate, that is not a report, it’s a plate, lying with the hospital; and the original recording of the post mortem. We are ready to provide the same anytime.”
The Single Bench observed that the Chief Medical Officer and the SP had refused to provide the post mortem video in the absence of a court order, and that the Uttar Pradesh Police had stated that there was no X-Ray report available with them.
Thereafter, the High Court directed the UP Police to hand over all crucial investigation material to the Delhi Police by March 5.
Related:
Farmer Navreet Singh’s death not due to gun-shot injury: Police to Delhi HC
Farmer’s death on R Day: Delhi HC seeks status report from Police