91 detail records of the deceased and in connection to Neha – which was not produced in trial; tip-off allegedly received regarding Neha’s whereabouts and what she would be wearing; participating in Neha’s arrest, and subsequent involvement on 23.06.2011 in recoveries of articles) points to concerning gaps in the manner of investigation carried out initially, or at the very least, an untruthful recollection and presentation of it, for the purposes of trial. As elaborated earlier, these facts prompted this court to draw adverse inferences against the prosecution’s version of Neha’s arrest. Other circumstances have been proved sufficiently to conclude their guilt and result in conviction. However, it is appropriate to also point out that concealment of DW-1’s role and failure to include the call detail records, could have severely prejudiced the accused, had these other circumstances not been made out. Therefore, at this juncture, it is pertinent to note and reiterate the role of the public prosecutor, and trial court, in arriving at the truth by way of fair disclosure and scrutiny by inquiry, respectively. 171. A public prosecutor (appointed under Section 24 CrPC) occupies a statutory office of high regard. Rather than a part of the investigating agency, they are instead, an independent statutory authority73 who serve as officers to the court74. The role of the public prosecutor is intrinsically dedicated to conducting a fair trial, and not for a “thirst to reach the case in conviction”. This court in Shiv Kumar v. Hukam Chand75 further held that “….if an accused is entitled to any legitimate benefit during trial the Public Prosecutor should not scuttle/conceal it. On the contrary, it is the duty of the Public Prosecutor to winch it to the force and make it available to the accused…”. In Siddharth Vasisht @ Manu Sharma v. State of NCT Delhi76 (hereafter ‘Manu Sharma’) it was concluded that 73 Hitendra Vishnu Thakur v. State of Maharashtra (1994) 4 SCC 602 74 Deepak Aggarwal v. Keshav Kaushik, (2013) 5 SCC 277 75 (1999) 7 SCC 467 76 (2010) 6 SCC 1