New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday slammed the Rajasthan police for its failure to arrest a man accused of raping a British tourist and directed it to produce tangible results within eight weeks.
Attorney General G E Vahanvati’s repeated efforts to convince the bench of Justices Markandeya Katju and Asok Kumar Ganguly that the investigation was proceeding in the right direction and the bench remarked “our initial order was taken casually. They (police) can’t play around with our orders.”
Though the apex court had on January 16 ordered the arrest of Prabhat Singh Rana and cancellation of his bail granted by the state High Court, he is yet to be nabbed despite a nation-wide search for him.
“Is this the character of investigations? It only shows you (police) in poor light”, the bench said.
The apex court, while granting eight weeks to the state government asked Rajasthan authorities to take up with German and Nepalese authorities for nabbing Rana who is believed to have fled to Nepal with a German girlfriend.
The bench passed the direction after the Attorney General, appearing for the state, submitted that complying with the court’s direction five special teams comprising 50 police constables have fanned out across the country to nab Rana.
Rana was convicted in December 2008 and sentenced to life imprisonment by a fast track court in Udaipur for the rape of the British tourist who was his guest at the hotel. However, the Rajasthan High Court stayed the sentence and granted him bail, after which he escaped.
The apex court on an appeal filed by the victim in January this year cancelled the bail and ordered Rana’s arrest after he failed to surrender and since then has been at large.
The Attorney General said investigations so far had indicated that Rana was moving around with a German girl and apparently escaped to Nepal.
“Does he have a wife? Then he must be with her,” the bench said, to which Vahanvati said the police had questioned Rana’s wife, mother and other close acquaintances but his whereabouts have remained a mystery.
The bench was also displeased with the counsel for being unable to provide a proper answer as to whether Rana was the owner of the hotel or just an employee where he allegedly raped the tourist.
The Rajasthan government had earlier informed the court that it has suspended two senior police officers for their failure to arrest Rana.
The two officers Brijesh Kumar Soni and Gopal Singh Rathore, holding the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), have been placed under suspension after they failed to arrest Rana as per the January 16 directive of the apex court.
At the last hearing, the Rajasthan Home Secretary had appeared before the bench and tendered an unconditional apology through an affidavit for the police’s failure to apprehend Rana.
-Agencies