LUCKNOW: In what can be called a glaring example of supine and lackadaisical approach of officials in the police department, came to light when Purushottam Singh of the Hata area of Kushinagar district, along with his two brothers and his two sons challenged a chargesheet in Allahabad High Court filed against them in connection with a property dispute by the district police.The case, when listed in Allahabad High Court for hearing, left the bench of Justice Saurabh Shaym Shamshery baffled when the lawyer of Purushottam Singh told him that the petitioner had died three years ago in 2011and he along with his four family members were booked for forgery and fraud by Shabd Prakash in 2014.The petitioner’s lawyer Rajesh Kumar Singh told the court that Shabd Prakash had an old land dispute with Purushottam Singh. In the case, wherein, the FIR against the accused was lodged in 2014, the investigating officer even recorded the statement of dead Shabd Prakash and submitted a chargesheet against Purushottam and his kin in the district court.However, Shabd Prakash’s wife Mamta confirmed that her husband had died in 2011 and the year of his demise was corroborated by the death certificate produced by his wife and presented in the court by lawyer Rajesh Kumar Singh of the petitioner Purushottam Singh.Justice Shamshery was taken aback on discovering the fakery of the investigating officer who not only registered the FIR in 2014 but had also recorded statements of the deceased attached with the chargesheet.What rattled the court further was that complainant Shabd Prakash had even signed the ’Vakalatnama’ opposing the petition of Purushottam Singh on December 19, 2023.Taking note of these facts, Justice Shamshery quashed the chargesheet against Singh and his family members and summoned the Kushinagar Superintendent of Police to explain the whole issue.Expressing strong dismay over the case, Justice Shamshery said: “It appears that all the proceedings are undertaken by a ghost.”The court also ordered an investigation into how a deceased person could file a case against innocent persons to trouble them and how an investigating officer could record a statement from someone who had passed away three years before the registration of the case.Justice Shamshery also directed that a copy of his order be sent to the president of the High Court Bar Association. The HC judge warned Shabd Prakash’s lawyer Vimal Kumar Pandey who had submitted his ‘Vakalatnama’ signed by dead Shabd Prakash in the court. The High Court asked Pandey to be more cautious next time.
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