Supreme Court discharges businessman in 1993 custodial death case, sets aside Allahabad HC order
Justices CT Ravikumar & Sudhanshu Dhulia [15-07-2024]

Read order: Ram Prakash Chadha v. The State of Uttar Pradesh [SC- Criminal Appeal No. 2395 of 2023]

LE Correspondent

New Delhi, July 16, 2024: The Supreme Court has discharged a businessman in a 1993 case of the death of his employee following torture in police custody after he lodged a false complaint against the deceased, setting aside orders of the Allahabad High Court and trial court that had rejected his plea for discharge.

A bench comprising Justice C.T. Ravikumar and Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia allowed Ram Prakash Chadha's appeal, holding that there was absolute absence of any material to implicate him for the offence of criminal conspiracy or sharing of common intention in the custodial death of his employee Ram Kishore.

The prosecution's case was that Chadha had lodged a false robbery complaint in July 1993 regarding snatching of his business proceeds. Subsequently, he handed over his employee Ram Kishore to the police for interrogation in the case. Kishore was allegedly illegally detained and tortured by police officials from July 17-23, 1993 and died in a hospital on July 24 morning.

Chadha was arraigned as an accused along with two police officials for offences including murder, criminal conspiracy and illegal detention. He sought discharge from the case contending absence of grounds to proceed against him.

The Supreme Court noted that apart from using the expression "criminal conspiracy", there was no allegation whatsoever in the chargesheet or witness statements suggesting that Chadha conspired with the other accused. The top court said the trial court's finding that there was ground to proceed against Chadha was based on "suppositions and suspicions", having no foundational support from the prosecution's materials.

The Top Court said merely because Chadha lost money and lodged a complaint based on information given by his employee, he cannot be implicated in the offence of custodial death amounting to murder.

Setting aside the High Court and trial court orders, the Supreme Court allowed Chadha's plea for discharge under Section 227 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. However, it clarified that the observations were limited to Chadha's case and would not affect the merits of the case against the other accused police officials.