“It may be a hot political potato for you but there is nothing in it legally,” said the Supreme Court justice DY Chandrachud on account of state pressing appeal against the high court order directing the Delhi Police to supply crucial documents as prayed under section 207 CrPc in the case wherein Manish Sisodia (AAP) and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal were roped in as accused allegedly on account of assault on former Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash.
ASG Aman Lekhi argued on behalf of the Delhi Police, his main contention was that the accused is requesting via application under section 207 CrPC regarding recordings contained in case diary which is not part of the evidences, further since no statement of the witness was recorded u/s 161 CrPC the same cannot be supplied. He further argued that the statement u/s 161 CrPC shall be inserted in case diary as per Supreme Court Judgment, because it is a part of the case diary, it is not part of the evidence while all the documents related to evidence are already shown.
It was further argued that the date on which statement of witness V.K. Jain was recorded as a part of the charge-sheet and the other date mentioned i.e. 21.02.2018 in the charge-sheet is a typographical error, an argument which was already rejected by the High Court.
The Supreme Court bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and MR Shah were not inclined to hear the State’s contention of challenging the High Court order, the bench stated that if something benefits the accused to prove his case, these things need to be allowed. Further if it comes to Natural Justice the accused has every right.
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The Supreme Court favoured the challenged judgment of single judge bench of Delhi High Court presided by Justice Suresh Kumar Kait wherein it was observed that,“it is the prime duty of the Investigating Agency to do free and fair investigation, thereafter, bring to the notice of the Court all the evidence collected without pick and choose. The Investigating Agency has no power to appreciate the evidence, it rests with the Court.”
And directed the trial court to consider the statement dated 21.02.2018 of V.K. Jain, which is part of Case Diary and placed on record by the accused, at the time of passing the order on Charge.
The Ex-Delhi Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash had alleged that he was beaten up by AAP MLAs in the presence of Delhi CM Kejriwal at CM’s residence where he had been called for a late-night meeting on 19th February 2018.