Gwalior, Apr 18 (PTI) The Madhya Pradesh High Court has pulled up a senior IPS officer for “violating fundamental rights of free and fair investigation” by withholding important information in a 2017 murder case of a man in Datia district, and ordered a departmental inquiry against him.

The Gwalior bench of the high court, in its order passed on Wednesday, also imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Mayank Awasthi, who was then posted as the Superintendent of Police of Datia district, for “deliberately obstructing the investigation and misleading the trial court by withholding important records”.

It directed the state Director General of Police (DGP) to decide if people like Awasthi, who is currently posted as Deputy Inspector General (DIG), should be retained in the police force or not.

The order was given by Justice G S Ahluwalia of Gwalior bench in the incident of murder that had occurred under Deepar police station limits in Datia district.

A murder case was registered at the police station on 24 September 2017.

Petitioner Manvendra Gurjar, the accused in the murder case, had filed an application challenging the prosecution’s claims about the date and location of the incident. He had said that while he was at another location on the day of the alleged murder, the deceased, the injured and the witness in the case were in Amayan of Bhind district.

But the investigating officer hid the fact and showed that the incident took place in the limits of Deepar police station of Datia district, his plea said.

He said he requested the authorities to share the call detail records (CDR) and mobile location of some mobile numbers, and said the information about these things be preserved to prove that the injured and the witnesses were not present at the place where the incident allegedly took place.

On September 7, 2018, the trial court directed the authorities to keep this information safe.

The police, however, told the court that the information about the tower location was not kept safe and the trial court rejected the application of Manvendra Gurjar, following which he filed a petition in the high court.

After that, the in-charge of Deepar police station was summoned. But he could not give a satisfactory answer.

The court had sought a reply from IPS officer Awasthi, who was then the SP of Datia. But on not getting a satisfactory answer, the Gwalior bench passed the order against him on April 16.

The HC order stated that Awasthi was acting wrongly to benefit one party. A family lost its member, while the other side is facing cases like life imprisonment and death penalty.

He (Awasthi) has violated the fundamental rights of free and fair investigation, it said.

The high court also imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on the officer for deliberately obstructing the investigation and misleading the trial court by withholding important records.

It ordered him to deposit the fine amount within a month, and warned that in case of non-compliance, action will be taken to recover the amount and registration of a contempt of court case. The deposited amount will be given to the party that wins the case.

It also directed the authorities to initiate a departmental inquiry against DIG Awasthi so that his “objectives and possible misconduct can be ascertained”.

The HC also said it is the job of the DGP to decide whether such people should be retained in the police department or not.

It directed the current Datia SP to provide the CDR and information related to the mobile location in the case within 10 days.

It also directed the DGP to inform the court about the progress of the investigation by May 20. PTI COR MAS NP