CHANDIGARH: Former Punjab Governor Siddhartha Shanker Ray, who failed to appear in the court last week, has once again been issued fresh summons to record his statement in the ongoing GillBajaj case.
The orders were handed down by Chief Judicial Magistracies Darshan Singh when the case of alleged outraging of the modesty of a woman IAS officer, Rupan Deol Bajaj, came up for hearing last week in the court held inside the traffic police auditorium, Former Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Chandigarh, Joginder Singh Tiger, during his examination in chief told the court that after the case was registered, it was handed. Over to him for investigation on July 30, 1988, He further stated that he had then recorded the statements of all prominent witnesses, including the eyewitness, mentioned in the FIR.
On being cross-examined, Joginder Singh said that as none of the witnesses supported the victim, he had recommended that the case be closed as “untraced.” Later, the Legal Remembrance, Chandigarh administration, and the ‘illegal’ magistrate, also endorsed his opinion.
While deposing before the court, the Investigating Officer said that he had not recorded the statements of Rupan Bajaj and her husband. He said that though he had contacted Rupan over incident, she had refused to record a fresh statement saying that she had already given a detailed account of the incident in the complaint made by her and that the same be treated as her statement. He also stated that since her husband was not an eyewitness to the occurrence, he did not feel the necessity to record his statement.
Joginder further said that he conducted the investigations about being pressured and had recorded the statements without any addition or subtraction.
He said that the Bajajs did not complain about the improper investigation of the case till he gave his report recommending the closure of the case. He, however, stated that nowhere in the case diaries, he had mentioned that he had tried to contact Rupan.
Article extracted from this publication >> May 15, 1996
