A senior police officer said that “serious cases” will include all cases and incidents which can result in the “erosion of the public’s trust in the law and order system”.Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Sunday said his government will constitute a Heinous Case Monitoring Unit to monitor “serious cases”, right from their investigation till the trial process, to ensure that justice is done.
Gehlot said the unit will function under the supervision of the Additional Director General of Police (Crime), and will have an Inspector General of Police, a Deputy Inspector General of Police, two SPs and two legal officers. The unit will also have an additional superintendent of police or deputy superintendent of police in every police range or commissionerate.
“It will monitor the investigation of the case, and what is special is that the monitoring will continue even after the chargesheet is filed by the police. The cell will monitor serious cases like that of the Pehlu Khan case. Even after the chargesheet is filed, the duty of legal officers will be to monitor the case in the court, the state of witnesses, whether any witnesses have been left out, FSL report, and whether identification parade has been done or not,” Gehlot told reporters.
A senior police officer said that “serious cases” will include all cases and incidents which can result in the “erosion of the public’s trust in the law and order system”.
Speaking to reporters, the Chief Minister alleged that in the Pehlu Khan lynching case, in which all the accused were acquitted, the previous BJP government in the state “deliberately” left shortcomings to “save the accused”.
“The Pehlu Khan case, regarding which a lot of discussion is going on… It was a case which had shaken the nation. The kind of carelessness that the previous government had done, it’s unimaginable. They crossed all limits of carelessness. Because of this, the court acquitted the accused, giving them benefit of doubt,” Gehlot said.
He added, “In the Pehlu Khan case, three investigating officers were changed. In such a big case, the investigating officer was changed multiple times. You can understand why this happened. This is why we have decided to constitute this (unit).”
The chief minister added that the special investigation team (SIT) constituted by the Rajasthan government will find out the shortcomings in the Pehlu Khan murder case probe and action will be taken against those responsible. In its verdict on Wednesday, the court acquitted all six accused in the Pehlu Khan case, giving them the benefit of doubt, but observed that the Rajasthan Police probe had “serious shortcomings”.
