The Indore police claimed that rodents destroyed samples of various cases. This included the murder case. The Madhya Pradesh High Court rebuked the Indore police over the destruction of evidence by rats. This was a reflection of the “pathetic condition” where 29 samples of important evidence in a homicide case have been lost,” it said.
After Ansar Ahmad was taken to court on a bail application after he was accused of physically assaulting his wife, Tahira B, with resultant injuries to the head, hand and spine, the woman died after receiving the treatment and that’s when the police filed a case under sections 304 IPC and 323 IPC voluntarily causing hurt. The Deputy Commissioner of Police accompanied by station house officer was also summoned. The DCP told the court that the “viscera” in the case had been kept in plastic cans, which had been ravaged by rats in the monsoon season. He thus claimed that 29 different samples could not now be used.
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Observing that nothing could be done now to set it right, Justice Subodh Abhyankar criticized the police for not taking into consideration the safety of the evidence materials. This incidentally had brought into focus the deplorable conditions in which articles and materials collected during investigations were kept in police stations all over the state.
The high court issued directives to the police chief of Madhya Pradesh to “take stock” of all malkhanas in police stations so that such an incident does not recur in the future. The DCP informed the court that departmental inquiry had already been started against the malkhana incharge and the station house officer on this issue. Also, items in the malkhana have been shifted to a sanitized and sealed place for better preservation.
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