New Delhi: A Delhi court has acquitted a 2015 Dusu candidate of the charge of defacing public property by pasting his campaign posters on the wall of a government building on the ground that the complainant himself was probing the case.
Chief metropolitan magistrate M. Khurana absolved the Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti (CYSS) candidate R.R. Aryan, who contested for the post of secretary in 2015 Delhi University Students’ Union (Dusu) elections of the offence under Delhi Prevention of Defacement of Property Act.
The court also noted that there were no independent witnesses to prove the allegations. “It is a well settled law that the complainant should not be the investigating officer (IO) in the case to rule out any illwill or bias against the accused.
“Therefore, to allay any fear of bias or ill will, it is in the fitness of things that the complainant and the IO not be the same person,” said the court, deciding the matter in favour of the accused, who lost to an ABVP candidate.
“Considering the fact that photographs of the posters remained unproved, non-examination of independent witness, non -filing of certificate under the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 regarding taking of photograph from his mobile phone and the complainant being the IO, in my opinion, the prosecution has failed to prove its case against the accused beyond doubt,” he said.
According to the prosecution, on September 10, 2015 a police officer saw posters on a government boundary wall near Devika Tower at Nehru Place as part of the campaign for Mr Aryan.
An FIR was lodged followed by a charge sheet against him for the offence of defacing public property under the DPDP Act. However, during the trial, Mr Aryan, claiming innocence, said he was being falsely implicated and the wall in question was not a public property.
