Suo Motu Cognizance of Increasing Trend of Police Officers 'Copy-Pasting' Witness Statements During Criminal Investigations: Bombay HC

It is definitely most alarming to note that none other than the Aurangabad Bench of the Bombay High Court in a most learned, laudable, landmark, logical and latest judgment titled Amol Samadhan Nikam and Ors vs State of Maharashtra in Criminal Application No. 1091 of 2025 and cited in Neutral Citation No.: 2025:BHC-AUG:13097-DB that was pronounced as recently as on April 29, 2025 took suo motu cognizance of the increasing trend of police officers 'copy-pasting' witness statements during criminal investigations which is definitely most worrying.

- Sanjeev Sirohi Advocate

Frankly speaking, one has to be candid enough to acknowledge honestly that police cannot be ever absolved from its wrong doing and those men/women in uniform who are culpable on this count must be definitely most strictly punished so that we don't see repeatedly a recurrence of such most unfortunate trend that has been on an alarming rise as has been observed by various courts from time to time because it makes a huge mockery of our criminal justice system which most seriously jeopardizes the unflinching faith that people tend to usually pose on our courts and so also the legal process! It is ostensibly most concerning to note that a Division Bench comprising of Hon'ble Smt Justice Vibha Kankanwadi and Hon'ble Mr Justice Sanjay Deshmukh minced absolutely just no words to warn in no uncertain terms that such a practice is dangerous and may unnecessarily give an advantage to the accused persons.

What also certainly cannot ever go unnoticed nor escape our unremitting attention in any way is that the Division Bench made these most serious damning observations after examining a police charge sheet in a case that involved allegations that the accused had abetted the suicide of a minor 17-year-old girl.