The Bombay High Court at Aurangabad has recently taken suo motu cognizance of the growing practice among police officers of duplicating witness statements verbatim during criminal investigations.
In a case involving allegations of abetment of a minor girl's suicide, the Bombay High Court observed serious investigative lapses, particularly the police practice of copy-pasting witness statements. Though the accused withdrew their plea to quash the case, the Court proceeded to examine systemic issues in criminal investigations.
The bench of Justice Vibha Kankanwadi and Justice Sanjay Deshmukh observed, “we have noticed that even in serious offence, the investigating officer who had recorded the statements of the witnesses under Section 161 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, has literally made copy-paste of the statements. Even the paragraphs start with the same words and end with the same words. The culture of copy-paste statements is dangerous and may, in certain cases unnecessarily, give advantage to the accused persons. In such circumstances, the seriousness of the genuine case may get vanished. Two witnesses cannot give statement in identical fashion. The only change is as per the relationship of the witness either with the deceased or the informant.”
“when now we are coming across with such copy-paste statements in serious offence like Section 306 of the Indian Penal Code, it is then high time to take cognizance of the issue suo moto and to consider, as to what are those short comings or difficulties for the investigating officer/officers when they record such copy-paste statements.” the Court added.
The Bombay High Court took suo motu cognizance of the police's practice of copy-pasting witness statements and directed the State to issue clear guidelines for investigating officers on properly recording such statements, stressing that such shortcuts harm the integrity of the criminal justice system.
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