New Delhi: A Delhi court has called out the police over glaring inaccuracies in an accused’s criminal record, observing that he was falsely shown to be involved in at least 17 e-FIRs despite never being arrested nor named in any charge sheet in those cases, and granted him bail.Additional sessions judge Sonu Agnihotri noted that the prosecution had initially relied on a police report claiming the accused, Ajay Rathi, was involved in 36 criminal cases. After the defence disputed the claim, the court called for a verified report. Subsequent reports filed by the investigating officer revealed significant discrepancies, including 17 e-FIRs for which no court record was traceable.In the bail order, the court observed, “It is clear that false involvement of the accused has been shown… without arrest of an accused in a FIR, it cannot be said that accused was involved in such FIR.”The court remarked that the erroneous involvement record “may have impacted” the outcome of the bail proceedings, but the updated record established that the accused was involved in only five cases, including the present FIR, of which three had already been disposed of.The case stems from a family dispute between the accused and his mother, the complainant. The defence alleged the FIR gave a domestic dispute a “criminal colour” to deny him property rights and relied on a complaint filed by the accused’s wife before the FIR alleging threats.The court also noted that two co-accused had already secured regular bail while two others had been granted anticipatory bail. It observed that two persons named in the FIR were found to have been in Jammu & Kashmir and Goa on the date of the alleged incident, due to which the complainant’s version “may not be confidence inspiring at this stage at least.”Expressing concern over the inaccurate crime records, the court directed that a copy of the order be sent to the commissioner “to take stock of poor/false involvement record of accused maintained by Delhi Police and take corrective measures,” while directing that acknowledgement from the commissioner’s office be placed before it on July 13, 2026.
