New Delhi, Sep 29 (SocialNews.XYZ) A Delhi court has instructed the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) to amend its raid procedure guidelines, as it took up case where four agency officers face various charges, including abduction and abetment of suicide.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Shivani Chauhan heard a case where a suspect reportedly took his own life due to illegal detention, as well as physical and mental abuse by four DRI officers.
As per the case details, the central agency conducted a raid at the office, shop, and residence of Gaurav Gupta on April 24, 2018. The operation concluded the following morning, resulting in the seizure of gold, silver, and foreign currency.
The victim and his father are alleged to have accompanied the DRI officials to their office.
Tragically, Gaurav Gupta fell from the DRI office through a window that had allegedly been left open by an air conditioner repairman, leading to his untimely death.
Initially, an FIR was registered for the offence of murder. However, after an investigation, a cancellation report was filed, and the Investigating Officer (IO) determined it to be a case of suicide.
"The victim Gaurav Gupta and his father Ashok Gupta were detained without following due procedure and taken to the office of DRI in the morning after the conclusion of the raid. There is nothing on record to show that the raiding party had the authority to detain these two persons without formal arrest and interrogate them at their office at that time," the court said in its order on September 25.
"This act in itself is an abuse of the powers vested with the concerned officers of the DRI. The detention itself was illegal. Further, father of victim & the victim Gaurav Gupta were kept in separate rooms. Ashok Gupta who was kept in adjoining room heard his son being beaten and abused by the three officials," the court noted.
"It is clear that Gaurav Gupta was tortured within the hearing of victim's father with a view to coerce him to cause recovery of movable property of the nature involved in the present case. From the above facts, it is also evident that victim Gaurav Gupta was verbally and physically abused at the time of the raid," the court stated.
"The victim was not given a chance to speak with his family members or advocates after the conclusion of the raid. The victim was not given adequate opportunity to rest or be with his family members after a night long raid. Rather he was straightaway and illegally taken to the office of DRI, beaten & abused during further interrogation which deteriorated the mental condition of the victim to such an extent that he was driven to commit suicide," the court said.
It said that there was sufficient material on record to take cognisance of offences against the four officers -Parminder, Nishant, Mukesh and Ravinder - under IPC's Sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 341 (wrongful restraint) 166 (public servant disobeying law with intent to cause injury to a person) 352 (punishment for assault or criminal force otherwise than on grave provocation), 362 (abduction), 348 (wrongful confinement to extort confession), 306 (abetment of suicide), 330 (voluntarily causing hurt to extort confession) and 34 (common intention).
"IO is directed to file an information sheet of all the four accused officials… Thereafter, summons be issued to the accused," the court said.
It observed that "while there exists several guidelines and procedural safeguards to keep a check on the powers of investigating agencies like police etc., there are no judicial guidelines or procedural safeguard for the agencies like Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and Customs etc. In these circumstances and in view of peculiar facts of the present case, the court is under a bounden duty to issue directions to the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence to revise the guidelines with respect to the procedures to be followed by its Officers during the raid."
The court further directed that the proceedings of the raiding team conducted at the premises of the alleged person/suspect should be video recorded and preserved.
"The person/suspect should be given an effective opportunity to consult their advocate after the conclusion of the raid and before any interrogation. Free Legal Aid where applicable, be made available. No person should be detained without following the procedure of law. Action be taken against officers detaining any person without following such procedure," stated the court.
"There should be audio and video recording of the interrogation of the suspect which should be preserved till the case against him has concluded and the time period of filing of appeal has expired," the court added.
Source: IANS
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