The main legal point established in the judgment is that a superior officer, such as the head of a Special Investigation Team, can be competent to file a final report under section 173 Cr.P.C. even if not the officer-in-charge of a police station.

JUDGMENT :

Can the head of a Special Investigation Team, specially constituted to investigate a crime, who is not the officer-in-charge of a police station, file a final report under section 173 Cr.P.C? The aforesaid question arises for consideration in this proceeding.

2. Petitioners are the three accused in S.C. No.764/2023 before the Additional Sessions Court, Neyattinkara, which arose out of Crime No.1311 of 2022 of the Parassala Police Station. They face an indictment for the offences under sections 302, 364, 328, 201 and 203 r/w section 34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. After the case was committed to the sessions court, petitioners questioned the order of committal of the case through an application filed as CMP No. 81/2023, contending that the investigating officer who had filed the final report did not possess the jurisdiction to do so. The learned Sessions Judge dismissed the said application by the impugned order against which this challenge has been raised under section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973 (for short, ‘the Cr.P.C’).

3. The case relates to the death of a young man named Sharon Raj. The prosecution alleges that the accused had murdered Sri. Sharon Raj, who was in a relationship with the first accused. It is alleged that the accused entered into a conspiracy to poison and murder the deceased due to his refusal to withdraw from the relationship with the first accused, as another alliance had been arranged for the first accused. In furtherance of their conspiracy, the first accused had, on 14.10.2022, seduced the deceased to visit her at her house and to make love with him. The deceased, on reaching her house, was served with an ayurvedic concoction laced with poison. After consuming the drink, the deceased started vomiting and soon fell ill, as his internal organs were severely damaged. On 30.10.2022, while undergoing treatment at Medical College Hospital, Thiruvananthapuram, Sri. Sharon Raj succumbed to death. The second and third accused allegedly destroyed the evidence by concealing the bottle containing the poison, and the accused thus committed the offences alleged.

4. After the crime was registered with the Parassala Police Station, due to the sensational nature of the case, a Special Investigation Team was constituted, with the Deputy Superintendent of Police of the Crime Branch as its head and the reins of the investigation was handed over to him. After completing the investigation, the head of the investigating team filed the report, which was registered as C.P. No.6/2023 and thereafter committed and made over to the Additional Sessions Court at Neyyattinkara.

5. Petitioners questioned the committal order as well as the final report through C.M.P. No.81/2023, contending that it is filed by an officer without any jurisdiction. Referring to the definition of the terms “officer-in-charge of a police station”, “police report”, and “police station” under section 173(2) of Cr.P.C., it was contended that only the ‘officer-in-charge of a police station’ or in other words, the station house officer alone had the authority to file the final report even if the crime was investigated by a special investigation team. Reliance was placed on the judgment of the Karnataka High Court in N. Narasimha Moorthy v. State of Karnataka (Crl.R.P. No.250 of 2022).

6. By the impugned order, the learned Sessions Judge dismissed CMP No.81/2023 after finding that the head of the special investigation team was entitled to file the final report.

7. I have heard Sri. Sasthamangalam S.Ajithkumar, learned counsel for the petitioners as well as Sri. Grashious Kuriakose learned Additional Director General of Prosecutions.

8. The unnatural death of Sri. Sharon Raj, on 25.10.2022, slowly unfurled a case of a gruesome murder. The special investigation team was appointed by the District Police Chief on 29.10.2022 with Sri. Johnson K.J. Dy.S.P. as the head of the investigation. Later, the District Police Chief had, by another special o