The Bombay High Court has ordered the Konkan division’s special inspector general of police to personally supervise the investigation into the alleged assault and abuse of medical staff by Shiv Sena workers at a private hospital in Palghar, after finding that investigators had failed to collect important evidence. The court has also directed the police to submit an investigation report next week.
A division bench of Justices Ajay Gadkari and Kamal Khata criticised the investigation during a hearing on Friday, describing it as “laughable” because the police had allegedly done little beyond repeating statements recorded in the spot panchnama. The court said the investigating officer had not collected any important evidence or seized material from the scene.
The case concerns an incident at the Palghar hospital in which medical staff were allegedly abused and assaulted by members of the Shinde faction of Shiv Sena. The court’s observations focused on whether the police had properly documented the scene and preserved material that could establish what happened.
The bench specifically referred to an incident in which the saline attached to a Govinda admitted to the intensive care unit was allegedly removed. It questioned why the saline bottle had not been mentioned in the spot panchnama and asked whether the bottle had been found and whether the room had been cleaned. The questions formed part of the court’s concern over the completeness of the investigation.
The court also pointed out that the public prosecutor had claimed that medical documents were seized, but that an important part of the evidence was missing. It questioned how the prosecution would establish that an offence had occurred if the item connected to the alleged incident had not been seized.
The bench said that lapses of this kind often weaken the prosecution’s case. Its criticism was directed at the manner in which the Palghar police station was conducting the investigation and at the failure to secure physical and documentary evidence at the alleged scene of the incident.
The court’s intervention followed submissions by a doctors’ association, which alleged that the action was proceeding slowly because the accused were linked to a ruling political party. The association also told the court that three of the accused had been denied anticipatory bail. It said the state government had not opposed those applications and that the complainants themselves had challenged them before the magistrate’s court, which subsequently rejected the requests.
The order places responsibility for monitoring the investigation with the Konkan division’s special inspector general. The police are expected to present their report before the High Court next week, providing the next formal opportunity for the court to assess whether evidence collection and investigation procedures have been corrected.
