Srinagar: Observing a definite attempt to shield the accused by fellow police officers, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court has transferred for investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation the case involving killing of woman from Jammu last year.
The victim, Neha Kumari wife of Inspector Vivek Bhasin of Ustad Mohalla, Jammu, received a gun shot fired from her husband’s revolver at her house on 26 February last year and later succumbed to her injuries.
“In the present case also, since the accused is a police officer, there appears to be a definite attempt to shield the said accused by fellow police officers which is amply reflected in the manner in which investigation has been conducted,” said a bench of Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur, adding, “In my opinion, a case has been made out for transferring the case for investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation. CBI shall forthwith conduct the investigation and investigate the circumstances leading to the death of deceased, Neha Kumari and determine whether the case was suicidal or homicidal.” Notwithstanding the fact that the case is registered only in terms of Sections 498-A/304-B RPC read with Section 30 of the Arms Act, depending upon the investigation so conducted, it shall be open to the CBI to book the accused under such offences as the CBI determines during the course of the investigation, the court added.
The court ordered the CBI to transfer take over the investigation after observing that the accused has not at all been arrested till date despite the fact that the offence on 26 February 2018.
“No steps at all were taken by the official respondents to get the interim orders passed by a Co-ordinate Bench in a petition under Section 561-A vacated, which would enable the investigating officer to subject the accused to interrogation,” the court said, adding, “Although the accused had been subjected to a polygraph test, no effort was made by the investigating officer to even carry forward the process in regard to obtaining sanction for subjecting the accused to a Narco Analysis test which request had been made as early as on 25.03.2018.”
The Investigating Officer, the court observed, also does not appear to have taken up the issue with the Ballistic expert as to what was the distance from which the weapon had been fired to determine as to whether it was a case of suicide or one of murder.
“The report of the Ballistic expert also appears to be illusory and cryptic and does not lay down the basic scientific parameters, based upon which, an expert investigator could come to a definite conclusion. If the report of the Ballistic expert was cryptic, the investigating officer should have been quick to get the necessary clarifications which are found conspicuously absent in the present case.”
