NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Uttar Pradesh government to pay Rs 6 lakh in reparation to a man who spent six years in jail as an undertrial in a murder case before being acquitted. The apex court said that the years lost to a faulty investigation were a travesty of justice.Slamming the state police for a “slipshod investigation” and the prosecution for its haphazard handling of the case, a bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and K Vinod Chandran called the man a “victim of the system”. It said six years of his life had been erased based on a “concocted story” built on mere surmises and conjectures.The man had been in custody since November 14, 2019, in a murder case registered in Agra.The Supreme Court noted that the trial court acquitted him after finding that none of the four circumstances cited by the prosecution, including electronic evidence, had been proved.“This is a classic case of how an investigation should not be proceeded with, resulting in the prosecution putting into jeopardy a person’s life and liberty,” the bench said.The court directed the state to pay the compensation within one month, acknowledging that the amount was small compared with the years he had spent behind bars.“We, hence, direct the state to pay an amount of Rs 6 lakh; though paltry in comparison to the years spent in custody, within a period of one month to the petitioner herein,” it said.The verdict came on a plea challenging an Allahabad High Court order in January that had denied the man bail. The Supreme Court had directed the trial court on March 23 to conclude the proceedings within three months. The trial was subsequently completed, and the accused was acquitted.The bench said the case highlighted the failure of investigating and prosecuting agencies to safeguard an individual’s liberty despite the presumption of innocence.“The state cannot shirk from its responsibility to protect its citizens, especially when a person arraigned in a criminal case is presumed innocent until proven guilty,” it said.The court stressed that the role of investigating and prosecuting agencies was not simply to secure convictions, but to ensure justice for all parties, including the accused.“They should recognise themselves to be essential stakeholders in the justice delivery system, ensuring justice, not only to the victim, the de facto complainant and the injured, but also to the accused,” the bench said.The judges also expressed concern over the wider implications of such cases, saying they had encountered similar failures but that this one stood out for its severity.
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“We come across such travesty of justice in many matters, but in some, so blatant and shocking, as in this case, which requires reparation to the accused, who in turn is a victim of the system,” it said.The bench directed that a copy of its verdict be sent to the Uttar Pradesh director general of police and the state’s home secretary. It also urged the police to train officers in proper investigative procedures, criticising the manner in which the case had been handled.The court said the acquittal was fortunate, given the consequences of the flawed investigation and prosecution for the man’s life and liberty.