Can a court curtail the police's statutory power to investigate a cognizable crime or declare an investigation complete, unless the case is exceptional?

Paragraph 31The investigation of a crime is the exclusive domain of the police. It is not the jurisdiction of the Court to decide when the investigation in a case should stop. It must be left to the discretion of the investigating agency to decide the course of investigation and to proceed in its own manner. The Court cannot curtail the statutory powers vested in the police except in an exceptional case on facts or where there is a statutory bar to carry investigation by the police. In “The King Emperor v. Khawaja Nazir Ahmad”[^30] the Privy Council held that the Court cannot interfere with the statutory right of the police to investigate the circumstances of a cognizable crime. In “State of Bihar & Anr. v. J.A.C. Saldanha & Ors.”[^31] this Court held that it is the bounden duty of the Executive through the police department to investigate the offence and bring the offender to book.

Paragraph 32A charge sheet is the final report of investigation by the investigating officer under section 173(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, which requires the investigating officer to submit a report in the prescribed form on completion of the investigation into a cognizable offence. A charge sheet is the gist of the prosecution’s case. It gives a summary of the materials collected during the investigation by the investigating agency. It gives a brief narration of the allegations against the accused person and the manner in which the accused person is sought to be roped in based on the materials collected during the investigation. It is, therefore, necessary that the investigating agency submits a report to the Court after full and complete investigation. This is the case set up by the investigating agency that it needed further time for analysing the data retrieved through the Forensic Laboratory. The investigating agency sought time to analyse how the data retrieved from the mobile phones, computers and other electronic gadgets seized from the accused persons connect them with the terrorist activities intended to undermine the sovereignty and integrity of India. The investigating agency is also required to indicate in the charge sheet how the flow of money in the bank accounts of the accused persons connects them with the terrorist activities. The analysis of data retrieved from the Forensic Laboratory is a part of the investigation and cannot be done after filing of the charge sheet.