Rajasthan HC Expresses Surprise On Refusal For Complainant's Narco-Test Citing Language Barrier Despite Consent, Orders Fresh Murder Probe
Rajasthan High Court expressed shock at the refusal of the concerned authority from conducting narco-test of the complainant in a murder case–who had consented to the same, on the ground that he was not fluent in Hindi.
Rather the authorities were required to depute someone who was acquainted with the mother tongue of such witness/suspect or victim, in whose presence the test could be done, it said. The court further said that Investigation Officer cannot close the investigation only on the ground that unknown accused persons were untraceable.
The court was hearing the complainant's plea challenging challenging an order of the Magistrate that accepted the Final Negative Report in a murder case, which had also rejected the complainant's protest petition.
The bench of Justice Anoop Kumar Dhand said:
"It is quite shocking and surprising to entertain the aforesaid submission and reasoning behind refusing to conduct narcoanalysis test of the petitioner. If any witness is not acquainted with a particular language or is not fluent in Hindi language, this alone cannot be a ground for refusal of conducting narcoanalysis test of such person/suspect/witness. Under such eventuality, the Authorities concerned were expected to depute a person, who is acquainted with the mother tongue of such suspect/witness/victim, in whose presence, the concerned narcoanalysis test can be conducted".
The court further opined that Investigating Office could not be allowed to close the investigation, only on the ground that the unknown accused persons were not traceable after elapse of six years.
"This Court finds no justification in the reasons given for submission of the Final Report 'Negative', namely, that more than six years have passed and there are bleak chances of tracing the unknown accused persons. The Investigating Officer cannot be allowed to escape from his liability and duties to conduct the investigation in a proper way and he cannot be allowed to close the investigation in the instant matter only on the count that the unknown accused persons are not traceable.
There are certain cases like that of 'blind murders' wherein the accused persons are unknown and the Investigating Officer is duty bound to trace such accused persons by making all necessary efforts. However, in the instant case, such efforts were not made by the Investigating Officer in a proper way and the matter was closed based on the aforesaid reasons recorded by the Investigating Officer in the Final Report 'Negative'"
The petitioner-complainant had filed an FIR against the respondent alleging that the respondent murdered his brother.
It was submitted that without conducting investigation in a fair and impartial manner, the police filed a Negative Report which was accepted by the Court. A protest petition was filed by the petitioner against the same, which was also rejected.
The Petitioner argued that during investigation, an application was narco-analysis test of the petitioner was submitted by the Investigating Officer. Petitioner had also given his consent for the same. However, the authority refused to conduct the test on the ground that the petitioner was not fluent in Hindi.
Further, the Court rejected the justification given for filing a Negative Final report that more than 6 years have passed, and there were bleak chances of tracing the unknown accused persons. It was opined,
Accordingly, the Court set aside the order passed by the Magistrate, and remitted the matter to the Investigating Officer for conducting further investigation, including narco-analysis test of the complainant-petitioner or other suspects/witnesses, if so required by the Investigating Officer.
Title: Feliram v State of Rajasthan
Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (Raj) 217