The Supreme Court of India has taken a grave concern and astonishment as reports have it that the currency notes that were confiscated in a corruption case in Bihar were ruined by rodents because of the poor storing conditions. A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and K V Viswanathan questioned how such important evidence could be left to deteriorate, being a major failure in its administrative treatment.
The issue was revealed when a plea of a woman convicted and sentenced to four years of incarceration on a bribery charge was heard. The accused, a Child Development Programme Officer in 2014, was convicted of taking a bribe of 10,000 rupees. Although the court allowed her on bail and suspended her sentence, it noted a disturbing finding made by the Patna High Court earlier.
The order issued by the High Court stated that the cash that was confiscated had been stored in a poor condition in a Malkhana (police storage room) and was ruined and useless thus letting rodents eat up the evidence. In response to this, the Supreme Court said that these cases are indicative of a larger system problem and questioned how many other cases could have been overlooked.
The bench called the destruction of money the State had seized as a gigantic loss of revenue and was not pleased with the answer given by the authorities. It emphasized the importance of improving infrastructure and tightening of measures to ensure protection of materials that have been confiscated to protect the cases that are sensitive such as those that involve financial evidence.
The statements made by the court indicate issues regarding responsibility and the imperative to introduce changes in the evidence management systems within the law enforcement agencies.