|
New Delhi: Ever heard of a dead person's statement being recorded? Well, that's exactly what Delhi Police did to solve an accident case!
Eager to show that they were on top of things, police cited in court a statement of Shaikh Azibul Khan that was curiously recorded a year after he died in the accident.
Khan was on his way to office on November 15, 1989 when a vehicle hit his bicycle in Delhi.
Khan sustained head injuries and Virender Dutt, a passer-by, rushed Khan to hospital. Khan, however, died on December 12, 1989.
But police charged Dutt with hitting Khan with a car he was driving.
The police accused Dutt for the nearly two-decade-old accident on the basis of the dead man's statement.
The probe took nearly five years to complete and the case could come up for trial in the Patiala House Court only in 1995.
Pleading his innocence, Dutt contended: "On the day of the accident, two Russian engineers were travelling in my car and on their insistence I stopped the car and had taken the injured to the hospital."
However, the Delhi Police left nothing to chance and recorded statements of 17 witnesses.
While some witnesses did not identify Dutt as the driver of the "killer vehicle", others said they did not note the vehicle's registration number.
What really took the fizz out of the prosecution case was Khan's statement recorded by the investigating officer November 20, 1990, nearly one year after his death.
Metropolitan Magistrate Kuldeep Narayan pulled up police for its shoddy investigation and acquitted Dutt in February.
|
