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