Delhi’s Saket court has recently issued summons to 4 Directorate of Revenue Intelligence officials after taking cognizance of charges filed against them in the 2018 suicide case of a city-based jeweller Gaurav Gupta.
The court has also issued some guidelines to be followed by the officials while conducting the raids and investigations.
Previously on September 25, Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Shivani Chauhan issued summons to the 4 DRI officials – Parminder, Nishant, Mukesh and Ravinder- after taking cognizance of a chargesheet against them.
The Chief Metropolitan Magistrate stated, “On basis of the chargesheet, documents statement of witnesses and above discussion, material is sufficient for taking of cognizance for offences Under sections 323/341/166/352/362/ 348/306/330/34 IPC against Parminder, Nishant, Mukesh and Ravinder.”
The court directed the Information Officer to file an information sheet of all the 4 accused within 2 working days after which the accused Parminder, Nishant, Mukesh and Ravinder will be summoned on the next date of hearing.
The matter has been listed for hearing on October 17.
The court observed, “While there exists several guidelines and procedural safeguards to keep a check on the powers of investigating agencies like Police etc., there are no judicial guidelines or procedural safeguards for agencies like Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and Customs ete.”
It stated that in such circumstances and in view of the peculiar facts of the present case, the court is under a bounden duty to issue directions to the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence to revise guidelines with respect to the procedures to be followed by its officers during raids.
The court issued guidelines, which included directions for proceedings of raids to be video recorded and preserved.
Furthermore, the court stated that the suspects should be given an effective opportunity to consult their advocates after the conclusion of the raids and before any interrogation.
The court stated that free legal aid should be made available where applicable.
Thirdly, it stated that nobody should be detained without following the procedure of law and action that should be taken against those officials who detain any person without following such procedures.
The court stated that periodic checks will be made on supervisory officers and a record of all those summoned for interrogation or otherwise be maintained separately.
Moreover, audio and video recordings of the interrogation of the suspects should be preserved till the case against them has concluded and the time period of filing of an appeal has expired.
Meanwhile, a case has been registered against an FIR was registered on the allegation that Gaurav Gupta was murdered at the office of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence.
After investigation, a cancellation report was filed for offence U/s 302 IPC. The Investigating Officer, on the basis of material collected during the investigation, concluded that it was a case of suicide.
On April 24, 2018 evening a raid was conducted by a team comprising Parminder, Nishant, Mukesh and Anju, all officers of DRI at the office/ shop and the residence of the deceased jeweller Gaurav Gupta. The raid that concluded the next morning resulted in the recovery of gold, silver and foreign currency.
Gupta and his father are alleged to have accompanied the DRI Officials to their office and Gupta jumped to his death from the office of DRI through a window left open by the Air Conditioner Repair Person.
The court stated that from the perusal of the file, there was no material on record to show that the death of Gaurav Gupta was a murder.
The court observed that prima facie it seemed to be a case of suicide by Gaurav Gupta.
The court stated that now it is to be seen whether the victim committed suicide on his own volition or something happened with the victim at the office of DRI, which drove him to commit suicide.
The court further observed that a perusal of statements of parents, employees and relatives of the victim recorded by Swati Gupta, who was the then magistrate shows that all witnesses have deposed that the victim Gaurav Gupta was slapped by officers of DRI at the time when the raid was being conducted despite pleas by his father Ashok Gupta not to do so as he was co-operating.
The court also took note of the fact that immediately after entering their office, the raiding party disconnected all telephone connections and unplugged CCTV cameras.
While the raiding team could have validly disconnected the telephone connections and Wi-Fi transmission of CCTV footage, there was no valid reason for them to have unplugged all the CCTV cameras installed at the premises where the raid was conducted.
The court observed, “The presumption arises that raiding officers did not want their unlawful acts to be recorded in the CCTV footage which might be used against them. The conduct of the Male officers of the raiding team was not proper since the beginning of the raid.”
In his statement, the father of the deceased categorically stated that during the course of raids at his residence, one DRI official pointed a revolver at Gaurav Gupta and then at his Manju Gupta, who intervened.
He further submitted that they were stopped at the entrance of the office where the officials informed the CISF Guard that the duo were the accused. All the officers of the raiding Team except the woman official misbehaved and slapped them and their staff at the time of raid.
He stated that at the office of DRI, he and his son were kept in separate but adjoining rooms and he could hear his son being beaten up room.
