IMPORTANT POINT
State has, therefore, the duty to ensure that every investigation, conducted by its chosen agency, is not motivated, reckless and that the Investigating Officer acts in due obedience to law. It is only when the State ensures that the investigation is fair, can it (the State) be able to say, when questioned, that the trial conducted was a fair trial. Article 21, therefore, does not vest in only an accused the right to demand fair trial, but it also vests an equally important right, fundamental in nature, in the victim, to demand a fair trial. Article 21 does not, thus, confer fundamental right on the accused alone, but it also confers, on the victim of an offence, the right, fundamental in nature, to demand fair trial.

J.B. Pardiwala, J.

1. By this writ application under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the writ applicant has prayed for the following reliefs:

"7(A) Your Lordships may be pleased to admit and allow the present application.

(B) Your Lordships be pleased to direct registration of fresh First Information Report by recording correct version of the incident as narrated by the petitioner and further direct investigation through State C.I.D. Crime and/or Central Bureau of Investigation.

(C) Your Lordships be pleased to direct incorporation of P.I. Nagori, Shri A.D. Patelia, Shri Khachar and other police personnel present there at the time of incident as accused in the fresh F.I.R. to be registered in the name of petitioner as complainant/informant in the form of complaint.

(D) Your Lordships be pleased to stay further investigation of the present FIR bearing I C.R. No. 129/2016 lodged before Kodinar Police Station till conclusion of investigation of the complaint as per correct version of the petitioner.

(E) Pending the hearing and final disposal of this petition, Your Lordships be pleased to stay further investigation of FIR bearing I C.R. No. 129/2016 lodged before Kodinar Police Station.

(F) Pending the hearing and final disposal of this petition, Your Lordships be pleased to direct immediate transfer of P.I. Nagori, Shri A.D. Patelia and Shri Khachar from Kodinar Police Station out of district Gir-Somnath;

(G) Pending the hearing and final disposal of this petition, Your Lordships be pleased to direct registration of fresh First Information report by recording correct version of the incident as narrated by the petitioner and further direct investigation through State C.I.D. Crime and/or Central Bureau of Investigation;

(H) Pending the hearing and final disposal of this petition, Your Lordships be pleased to direct respondent No. 4 to submit a report before this Honourable Court pertaining to the role of the investigating officer and other police officers in connection with the incident dated 9.10.2016 registered as FIR bearing I C.R. No. 129/2016 at Kodinar Police Station, or in the alternative, direct the new investigating agency to investigate the role of investigating officer and other police officers in connection with the said incident dated 9.10.2016;

(I) Your Lordships may be pleased to pass any other and further orders as may be deemed fit and proper in the interest of justice."

2. The case of the writ applicant, in her own words, is as under:

"The petitioner states that on 9.10.2016 at about 2:00 pm, the petitioner was doing her household work (washing clothes) at her residence. At that time there was no adult male member present in the family and the petitioner's mother-in-law, who is paralysed and two children aged 2 years and 4 years were at home. The petitioner heart some miscreants loudly uttering abusive words outside her residence. In order to ascertain the situation, the petitioner peeped from the window and learnt that so many people were coming towards her residence with dangerous weapons in their hands. Before the petitioner could sense danger, the petitioner saw that one Shri Dinu Bogha Solanki was leading the people to her residence shouting abusive words against her husband.

The said Dinu Bogha Solanki was accompanied by Bharat Jetha, Rohit Gohil, Driver of Dinu Solanki, Ranjitbhai and his brother Mansinh, Lalo and other 14-15 persons while approaching her residence. They shouted about her husband and while doing so, they broke open the entrance (Verandah) gate of her residence and entered inside the house. Someone from outside broke the glass of the window where the petitioner's children were sleeping and thus the petitioner immediately took her children and mother-in-law towards the terrace. The said miscreants accompanied with the said Dinu Bogha Solanki kicked the front gate and broke it and entered the hall where they broke and bed and put the mattress on fire. They threw away the television set