Panchkula, September 12
A day after Doon MLA Ram Kumar Chaudhary and 11 others walked free in the Jyoti murder case, Haryana Director General of Police (DGP) SN Vashisht today ordered a probe into the alleged shoddy investigations that led to their acquittal.

The DGP is now supervising the departmental probe to fix the accountability of erring police officials. Vashisht has also asked Commissioner of Police (Panchkula-Ambala) Ajay Singhal to submit a report within seven days after the receipt of a copy of the judgment.

Talking to The Tribune, Vashisht said: “I have asked the Commissioner of Police to scrutinise the judgment. I have also asked him to check if there was a lapse on the part of any police officer in the investigations. Action would be taken against police officers found guilty.”

“The Panchkula Police has also been asked to chalk out a strategy so that the court orders can be challenged in the higher court,” the DGP said.

After a 16-month trial, a fast-track court in Panchkula on Thursday acquitted Chaudhary and 11 others as the police investigations failed to prove charges against them.

Besides Chaudhary, those acquitted include his nephews Gurmeet and Dharampal, friend Paramjit, truck driver Tilak Raj (arrested for the main crime), Harbhajan Chaudhary, Kamaljeet, Baljeet, Nirmal (arrested for harbouring the main accused) and Ashish, Pankaj Bhandari and Satish (arrested for giving SIM cards on fake identities).

Defence counsels said the prosecution failed to prove any connection between the MLA, his aides and Jyoti. Even the call details and abortion incident, which were the basis of their arrest, could not be proved.

At the time of the incident, investigating officer Virender Sangwan had said that Jyoti was strangled before she was run over by a truck. He changed his statement in the court saying “no truck tyre passed over Jyoti’s head”.

The then SHO, Ajay Rana, said in the court that the spot of murder could not be fixed as only blood stains were found where Jyoti’s body was spotted. The police investigations also failed to trace MLA’s driver Satpal after the murder who could have unravelled the mystery.

The police investigations had no answer where Jyoti was on November 21, 2012, the day she was killed, between 8.30 am and 3.45 pm. The defence pointed out that the photo of the MLA in Jyoti’s sister’s wedding was doctored and the prosecution could not prove it wrong.