Gujarat HC transfers probe in Vadodara custodial murder case

AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat high court has transferred investigation in Vadodara’s custodial murder case from the Vadodara police to the state CID (crime) and ordered that the case be probed by an officer of district superintendent of police (DSP) level fearing that accused cops may be expert in thwarting the investigation.
The bench of justice Sonia Gokani and justice NV Anjaria took notice of the fact that none of six policemen accused in the alleged custodial murder of Telangana-resident Shaikh Babu Nisar have not been arrested even after a month of registration of FIR. Nisar was mysteriously missing after December 10, 2019, when he was taken to Fatehgunj police station for interrogation in connection with a case of theft.
The judges feared that lapse of time would result in loss of evidence. They observed, “Much time has already lapsed and more the time will go, there is a likelihood of the evidence to be destroyed. Moreover, the Court cannot be oblivious of the fact that it is dealing with those persons who themselves are the veterans of the field of investigation and may also have mastered the art of overreacting the process… There are shocking details emerging as to how for days and months, no clue is received of a missing person about whom inquiries were made incessantly.”
The HC ordered that all documents related to the case should be immediately sent to CID (crime) through a “special messenger”. While the state government has been ordered to render all possible assistance in probe, the DGP was asked to choose a DIG to supervise the case, which will be investigated by an officer of the rank of DSP.
The FIR was filed in the case on July 6 after Nisar’s son Shaikh Salim filed a habeas corpus petition seeking his father’s custody from Vadodara police. When the HC ordered Vadodara police to furnish certain evidence like CCTV footage, six cops including former Fatehgunj police inspector Dharmendrasinh Gohil was booked.
The HC transferred probe on demand made by petitioner’s advocates K I Kazi and Imtiyaz Kureshi, who argued that not a single accused was arrested. The accused police inspector even moved the HC for quashing of the FIR and the investigators were clueless. To this the court said, "On one hand, the accused chooses not to be available to the investigating officer and on the other hand he prefers the petition before this court seeking quashment, that itself speaks the volume of connivance and hence, there will be am imminent need for the court to change the investigating agency.”