HC transfers murder case to CID after wife alleges police inaction

Nagpur: After a woman moved the Nagpur bench of Bombay high court complaining about Mouda police’s inaction in investigating the murder of her husband, the HC transferred the probe to State Criminal Investigation Department (CID).
“In our considered opinion, there should have been a fair investigation in this matter. We are of the view that whatever investigation is done, is not at all satisfactory. It is not made with the intention to find out the truth, but obviously to dilute the gravity of the accused’s act. Thus, we are inclined to hand over the entire case for fresh investigation to CID,” a division bench comprising justices MS Sonak and Pushpa Ganediwala said.
While directing the Mouda police to hand over the case papers to CID, the bench said having regard to the chronology of the events, as are discernible from the case diary and from the petitioner’s contentions, there should be a fair and impartial investigation into the suspicious death of the deceased.
“The police case diary shows statements of many witnesses that the accused went to the deceased’s house with sticks in his search. In clear words, they gave threats to the petitioner to kill the deceased. There were injuries on the dead body of the deceased,” the HC said.
After petitioner Rajni Wakde’s husband’s body was found in the river near their home at Dhanla village in Mouda, she lodged a police complaint against accused persons – Rajendra and Pranay Rajgire, and Harshad Bawne, accusing them of killing him. However, after the Mouda police failed to register an offence against accused for murder under Section 302, she approached the judiciary’s doors through counsel Firdos Mirza and Akash Moon.
She contended that the police were diverting the investigations in wrong direction to defeat the ends of justice. She also blamed them for fabricating her statements and failed to arrest main accused Rajendra.
The HC noted that the petitioner’s husband had been missing since September 7 and his body was found the next day in suspicious circumstances. Moreover, his vehicle was found in a substantially damaged condition.
“There is absolutely nothing in the case diary about the investigation about the damaged vehicle. The petitioner noticed several injuries on husband’s dead body. It appears that the investigation officer did not find it necessary to investigate the cause for such injuries. The statements of alleged eyewitnesses, as per the petitioner, appear to have not been recorded deliberately,” the judges said.