Modifications in the charge sheet by police

Respected Sir

Firstly there is no such bar on the police so as to submit the report to the Mact Court within one month from the accident. In one of my cases the chargesheet was submitted as long as 50 days after the incident. Not only this but the police report sent in the MACT court is not a chargesheet but a DAR -Direct Accident Report. This report unlike a chargesheet does not absolve a criminal liability on anyone but rather emphasises on the insurance and legal formalitites of the vehicles involved.Also the cops make an estimate of the amount of compoensation which needs to be awarded to the claimiants. This petition can be adopted by the claimant or he has the liberty to file a freshpetition on his own.

As for the addition to the documents goes. the police always has the liberty to file additional documents in the form of supplementary chargesheets which can be submitted even after the original chargesheet under 173 crpc ahas been submitted. However the moment they are filed if the magistrate has already taken cognizance, then the compliance under section 207 crpc of submitting the documents to the accused has to be mandatorily compliued with

Dear Mr Chatterjee,

   Thanks a lot for detailed reply. In this particular case the police has filed a charge sheet under 173 IPC in MACT court also and to add the name of new witness , the copy of this charge sheet was modified (there are signs of erasing and overwriting) and submitted in MM court for criminal liability. No additional charge sheet is submitted. Statement of the new witness is dated much before the charge sheet is submitted in MACT, but his name isnot included in the  charge sheet submitted to MACT.

      Is this procedure fine?

Respected Sir

The case and the procedure to be followed while talking about MACT cases and criminal cases are both very different.The MACT report as i said talks more about the insurance and registration details of the vehciles involved and not about the statements of the witnesses under section 161 crpc. MACT courts do no create any criminal liablility on anyone. They just determine the quantum of compensation to be paid to the victims and hence the DAR deals more with technicalities related to the Motor vehicles act and not CRPC>

In the above mentioned case howver the police has committed no irregularity as the statement of a witness under section 161 crpc is relevant only in criminal cases and not MACT. a few days ago in court i was appearing on behalf of an mact petitioner and the insurance lawyer asked the police to file the statements under 161 crpc to which i objected stating that this was a tactic to drlay the case as the 161 statements were not relevant for an mact case. the judge affirmed my arguement and his contentions were dismissed.

However sir it is pertinent to mention that if there are cuttings and omissions in the chargesheet then it it quiet possible that this creates doubt about the case of the prosecution. U may ask the police officer as to why he wrote what he wrote first and why did he then subsequently choose to cut it or overwrite over it. these form valid and legitimate questions.t=They may prove his mal;afide intentions and that he was either acting malafidely earlier while taking the recordings or later after changing them. Depends on where the overwriting is. Apart from that sir the police has not commited an irregularity.They are not under any obligation to file a statement of a  witness whom they feel to be relevant to the case in any other case apart from the Criminal Case. ITt is the prerogative of the prosecution.They may however use the statement of the witnesses to the accident in case the offending vehicle denies the accident in the MACT court. Apart from that they dont have to and they usually dont

Good luck sir :)

Dear Mr Chatterjee,

                Thanks a lot for the detailed report. What is the difference in the format of DAR and chargesheet. From the front page itself, can you know whether it is a DAR or chargesheet? 

The DAR has the details of the insurance and indentity related factors of the offending vehicles as well as the identity proofs of the drivers and the injured/deceased.

The chargesheet is comprising of section 161 crpc statements, mlc's, inquests etc etc.

although the insurance lawyers can ask for the 173 report in mact cases as well in order to determine the quantum of damages

Dear Sir,

I am practicing on behalf of insurance company, as per Judgment of honble delhi high court, Rajesh Tyagi and othrs v. Jaibir Singh and Othrs, FAO 842 of 2003 and MAC App. 422 of 2009, decided on 12-12-14, In Para 34 it is mentioned that duty of police to complete the investigation of the criminal case and file the charge sheet before the MM and to file DAR alongwith copy of chargesheet before the claims tribunal within 30 days.