‘Can’t assume dual role of investigator, punisher’: Court pulls up CBI over custodial torture claims

5 min readNew DelhiJul 8, 2026 03:16 AM IST

Special Judge Sushant Changotra of Rouse Avenue court found prima facie evidence that the accused, Prabhat Kumar, suffered blood clots in his ear and a thigh contusion while he was in CBI custody in June.

A Delhi court on Tuesday issued a scathing order against the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), directing a high-level inquiry into the alleged custodial torture of a man arrested amid the agency’s crackdown over a multi-crore counterfeit medicine case and alleged demands of bribery linked to it.

Special Judge Sushant Changotra of Rouse Avenue court found prima facie evidence that the accused, Prabhat Kumar, suffered blood clots in his ear and a thigh contusion while he was in CBI custody in June.  “The use of violence against a person in custody not only constitutes a serious violation of fundamental rights but also irreparably erodes public confidence in the criminal justice system. It casts a serious cloud over the fairness and credibility of the investigation itself. The police or any investigating agency cannot be permitted to assume the dual role of investigator and the punisher. Punishment for any criminal act can only be imposed by a competent court after due process of law,” said Judge Changotra in his order on Tuesday.

He added, “Custodial violence is one of the gravest assaults on the rule of law. It strikes at the very foundation of a constitutional democracy founded upon the guarantee of life, liberty and human dignity under Article 21 of the Constitution of India. No investigative agency, irrespective of the nature of the allegations being investigated, enjoys any licence to employ physical violence, coercion or torture during interrogation. The legitimacy of a criminal investigation lies in its fairness and legality, not in its capacity to extract information through fear or physical force.”

The court was hearing an application moved by Kumar through advocate Prateek Som who was arrested on June 16 and remanded to CBI’s custody the next day. Kumar had alleged that during the police custody, he was given severe “beatings due to which he suffered serious injuries in his left ear and on his left thigh”.

The CBI earlier alleged that a Rs 3 crore bribe was sought by an IPS officer to influence its probe into a Rs 5,000-crore counterfeit medicine manufacturing and distribution racket running out of Puducherry. Kumar has been accused of handling Rs 50 lakh bribes and handing them over to other co-accused.

“…the MLCs (medico legal case) dated 19.06.2026 and 20.06.2026, read conjointly, prima facie establish that the accused Prabhat Kumar sustained physical injuries while he was in the exclusive custody of CBI officials. The MLC dated 19.06.2026 records a contusion over the left thigh, whereas the MLC dated 20.06.2026 records blood clots and a bulge/hematoma in the left ear, along with the history of physical assault while the accused was in police custody. These are not vague or bald allegations but are prima facie supported by contemporaneous medical records prepared by government doctors during the subsistence of police custody,” said Judge Changotra in his order.

“The unexplained injuries on the person of the accused, coupled with the admitted movement of the accused to another police station during police custody and the contemporaneous medical evidence, lend substantial prima facie support to the allegations of custodial violence,” he added.  The court directed that the matter be examined at the “highest level within the CBI”.

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“A comprehensive, fair and impartial inquiry be conducted into the allegations of custodial violence levelled by accused Prabhat Kumar. The inquiry shall not be confined merely to identifying the officials who allegedly inflicted the physical injuries upon the accused but shall also examine the role, responsibility and accountability of all supervisory officers under whose command and control the accused remained during the period of police custody,” it said.

It also directed the Jail Superintendent to get Kumar medically examined from Safdarjung Hospital where all the necessary treatment shall be provided to him.

The court also slammed the CBI’s  “arbitrary” practice of freezing the bank accounts of the accused’s father-in-law, Gulshan Kumar, without any nexus to the crime proceeds, warning against harassing ordinary citizens.

“The investigation of offences cannot be made a tool for harassing ordinary citizenry only because their relatives are suspected of having committed certain offences…such arbitrary actions can play havoc with financial concerns of small-time vendors and can disrupt prospects of their existence and have the capacity to put their lives in complete disarray. It is extremely important that such draconian and arbitrary practices are shunned so as to protect the valuable rights of law abiding citizens,” the court said.

© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd

Nirbhay Thakur is a Senior Correspondent with The Indian Express who primarily covers district courts in Delhi and has reported on the trials of many high-profile cases since 2023.

Professional Background

Education: Nirbhay is an economics graduate from Delhi University.

Beats: His reporting spans the trial courts, and he occasionally interviews ambassadors and has a keen interest in doing data stories.

Specializations: He has a specific interest in data stories related to courts.

Core Strength: Nirbhay is known for tracking long-running legal sagas and providing meticulous updates on high-profile criminal trials.

Recent notable articles

In 2025, he has written long form articles and two investigations. Along with breaking many court stories, he has also done various exclusive stories.

1) A long form on Surender Koli, accused in the Nithari serial killings of 2006. He was acquitted after spending 2 decades in jail. was a branded man. Deemed the “cannibal" who allegedly lured children to his employer’s house in Noida, murdered them, and “ate their flesh” – his actions cited were cited as evidence of human depravity at its worst. However, the SC acquitted him finding various lapses in the investigation. The Indian Express spoke to his lawyers and traced the 2 decades journey.

2) For decades, the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has been at the forefront of the Government’s national rankings, placed at No. 2 over the past two years alone. It has also been the crucible of campus activism, its protests often spilling into national debates, its student leaders going on to become the faces and voices of political parties of all hues and thoughts. The Indian Express looked at all court cases spanning over two decades and did an investigation.

3) Investigation on the 700 Delhi riots cases. The Indian Express found that in 17 of 93 acquittals (which amounted to 85% of the decided cases) in Delhi riots cases, courts red-flag ‘fabricated’ evidence and pulled up the police.

Signature Style

Nirbhay’s writing is characterized by its procedural depth. He excels at summarizing 400-page chargesheets and complex court orders into digestible news for the general public.

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