A Delhi court on Friday rapped the Delhi police for failing to file forensic reports on time despite repeated warnings and asked why cost should not be imposed on it for such inaction.

Additional sessions judge D.K. Sharma, while rapping the cops, told them that he would impose a fine of Rs 10,000 on them if they repeat the same mistake again. The court made this observation while hearing arguments on charge against JNU student Anmol Ratan, who had been arrested by the cops for allegedly raping a 28-year-old fellow student at a university hostel.

It noted that in its chargesheet filed in September, the prosecution had not included the CFSL report, saying that the police seemed to pay no heed for a speedy trial. The court said that the prosecution has been told a number of times that they should take the opinion of experts but the Delhi police did not heed their opinion.

It said that on numerous occasions the concerned investigating officers (IOs), SHOs, ACPs, and DCPs (of some districts including south and south-west) had been warned in this regard but it appears that they do not pay any heed for the sake of speedy trial. “A show cause notice be sent to all the concerned IOs, SHOs, ACPs, and DCPs as to why the cost should not be imposed for failing to file forensic reports,” the court said.

The court, which was scheduled to hear Ratan’s bail application, posted the matter for hearing on October 17 after noting that counsel for the accused was not present before it.

While filing the final report in September, the police had told the court that call details of the woman and the accused, fingerprint report, and other CFSL reports pertaining to the case were pending and the agency was likely to file a supplementary chargesheet in the matter.

The police had chargesheeted Ratan for allegedly raping the victim. Ratan is currently lodged in judicial custody and his bail application is pending before a sessions court.