Overview
- The Supreme Court, which heard the appeal on Thursday, June 4, 2026, directed Gujarat Police to complete the stalled investigation within six weeks and file a report with the trial court.
- The criminal complaint alleges that in 2002 four people forged a man’s father’s signature and used fake property documents to alter revenue records while he was on the Haj pilgrimage.
- Investigations were repeatedly ordered and reopened after a 2014 police report was rejected and a 2017 High Court direction, but progress stalled because seized material went missing after Forensic Science Laboratory handling and original case papers became untraceable.
- The bench sharply rebuked the Gujarat High Court for not using extraordinary jurisdiction earlier and said the police should have filed a closure report if reconstruction was impossible rather than leaving the matter pending for decades.
- The court asked the state to file an affidavit setting out disciplinary action against the officials responsible and listed the case for a compliance review on July 14, 2026, a step that could affect how lost evidence and chain-of-custody failures are treated in other prosecutions.