The Madras High Court has given six more weeks’ time to the CB-CID for completing the probe into the alleged sexual harassment of a woman IPS officer by a senior official.
Justice N. Anand Venkatesh passed this order on Friday in the petition filed by a high-ranked police officer of Tamil Nadu Police.
The Court, while passing the earlier order on April 30, 2021, directed the Investigation Officer to take effective steps to complete the investigation and file the final report within a period of six weeks.
The Investigation Officer has sworn to an affidavit on June 15, 2021 and has assigned the reasons while seeking for six more weeks time to file the final report.
The State Public Prosecutor submitted that after the earlier order was passed on April 30, 2021, the Investigation Officer had recorded the statements of 7 more witnesses and thus far 113 witnesses were examined and their statements have been recorded under Section 161(3) Cr.P.C.
The State Public Prosecutor further submitted that further statements were also recorded from some of the witnesses, who were already examined earlier.
He would further submitted that the 164 Cr.P.C. statements have been recorded from all the 7 witnesses and what remains is the analysis report and the same is pending with the Forensic Department. The State Public Prosecutor, on instructions from the Investigation Officer, submitted that all efforts are being taken to collect the analysis report and an outer time limit of six more weeks may be granted in order to file the final report in the case.
The Investigation Officer also stated that the relevant certificates as required under Section 65B of the Indian Evidence Act is also parallely collected. The Investigation Officer stated that all efforts will be taken to complete the investigation and file the final report before the concerned jurisdictional Court within a period of six weeks.
R.Shanmugasundaram, Advocate General appearing on behalf of the second and third respondents submitted that insofar as the report of the Internal Complaints Committee is concerned, the same has already been submitted to the Secretary, Home Department and steps are being taken to proceed further on the basis of the report submitted.
The Court is satisfied with the reasons assigned in the affidavit filed by the Investigation Officer for not being able to complete the investigation within six weeks as expected by the Court in the previous order dated April 30, 2021.
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The investigation is almost complete and what remains is certain reports to be collected by the Investigation Officer before the final report is filed before the concerned jurisdictional Court.
“Taking into consideration the Status Report filed by the Investigation Officer and also the submissions made by the Advocate General and the State Public Prosecutor, the Court is inclined to extend the time for filing of the final report.
Accordingly, there shall be a direction to the Investigation Officer to complete the investigation and file the final report before the concerned jurisdictional Court within a period of six weeks,” the Court ordered.