Police Cannot Act As ‘Post Office’ For Complainant, MP High Court Quashes Supplementary Chargesheet
Indore (Madhya Pradesh): The Madhya Pradesh High Court has quashed a supplementary chargesheet filed in a 2004 alleged rape case, holding that an investigating agency cannot simply receive documents from a complainant and forward them to court in the name of “further investigation”. Justice Jai Kumar Pillai passed the order on Wednesday while allowing a petition filed by Sunil Kothari, who had…
The Madhya Pradesh High Court has dismissed a supplementary chargesheet in a 2004 rape case, ruling that an investigating agency cannot act as a "post office" for a complainant. The court's decision came after Sunil Kothari challenged a Special Judge's order that allowed 43 additional documents to be taken on record in the case.
The alleged rape occurred in December 2004, with the complainant alleging that a man posing as "Sanjay Kothari" offered her a job and later raped her at an office. Social fear and concern over reputation delayed her complaint. The High Court scrutinized the handling of the 43 documents, which had been seized from the complainant and recorded on January 25, 2025.
The court found that the documents had not been independently verified and that merely receiving them from the complainant and forwarding them to the court does not constitute a "further investigation" as required by Section 173(8) of the Criminal Procedure Code. The court emphasized that genuine further investigation requires an independent inquiry, and the investigating agency cannot simply receive documents from the complainant.
The court quashed the special judge's January 9, 2025 order and the supplementary chargesheet filed based on it.
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