DailyPost 2771
SUSPECT CRIMINAL CASE LIFECYCLE (3)
The trial part of the case starts with the submission of the chargesheet in the concerned court of law. What is of utmost importance is whether the chargesheet has gone through complete scrutiny from all angles. Ironically, the angle of the investigation can turn out to be at variance with challenges that could be posed during the trial. Just submitting a chargesheet is not enough to tell anything about the final judgement of the case. That there is a need for professionally sound lawyers to scrutinise and validate the chargesheet is well accepted, nothing much has been done in this regard. Few prosecution lawyers attached to the police analyse and clear it mechanically.
Without getting into the facts of an individual case the prosecution lawyer should have the competence, expertise and experience to match the defence lawyer. Otherwise, as you would appreciate, the legal battle gets skewed. The game starts at the time of charges being framed itself. The second generic factor is how can the prosecution try and make the trial happen fast. The longer the trial, the chances of the case falling flat increases for a variety of reasons, anyone being slightly conversant with criminal trials can enumerate in no time. Witnesses turning hostile is pretty normal. Thareekh pe thareekh as is metaphorically called in Hindi simply means that the process itself becomes the punishment.
The mechanical nature of statements taking in the manner it suits the case, more often than not throws up the contradictions when witnesses depose before the court. It also gives a feeling that to some extent the statements are doctored, that does not get well with the court. The facts of the case should come out undisputed which is generally not the case. Different tests and reports should indicate to the crime in a full proof manner, without any doubt, even if put to the most stringent cross examination, that includes the experts too.
The circumstantial evidence has to be neatly tied so that it gives a feeling and a legal substantiation of it being rock solid facts, as far as the context of that particular case is concerned. Though digital evidence has come into the picture quite some time back, yet it will still take a long time before it can turn out to be the game changing evidence in most cases. That should have been the case already. We are losing very valuable court time and adding to the trial duration because of our lack of dependence on digital evidence. We have very few cases where cyber forensics is used in a comprehensive manner. When 98% of our transactions are digital, where will the evidence come from? The appreciation of digital evidence needs a tectonic change from understanding, gathering, tech expertise enablement, to judicial appreciation of it.
TRIAL NEEDS IMMENSE / INTENSE PREPARATION, WE NEED TO MEET THOSE REQUIREMENTS.
Sanjay Sahay
Have a nice evening.