Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered a fresh probe into the suspicious death of 21-year-old National Law University student Vikrant Nagaich and reprimanded the Rajasthan police for the lethargic approach into the matter. SC has directed to constitute a new investigation team and gave two months deadline to complete the probe.
SC bench gave the decision after the deceased’s mother Neetu Kumar Nagaich filed a petition in the apex court through Sunil Fernandes seeking CBI inquiry into the matter. She stated in the petition that there is a reasonable suspicion about the circumstances of her son’s death.
The top court bench comprising of Justices R F Nariman, Navin Sinha, and Indira Banerjee set aside the closure report submitted by the previous investigation team and issued directions for constituting a new team to probe the matter and complete it within two months. The bench also said that the probe team will be headed by a senior police officer of the state and the personnel must be thoroughly conversant with the modern technology.
“No officer who was part of the investigating team leading to the closure report shall be part of the team conducting de novo investigation,” specified the bench.
The court noted, “The investigation remained inconclusive for nearly three long years with the investigations agency sanguine of passing it off as an accidental death without coming to a firm conclusion avoiding to complete the investigation. Much time has passed now and there is undoubtedly an urgency to conduct fresh investigations in the matter.
SC bench also pointed out that after the top court on July 8 asked them to complete the probe within two months, suddenly a very lengthy investigation closure report has been filed, taking a stand that though the death was homicidal there was no clue.
“The closure report is therefore, to our mind, a clear hasty action leaving much to be desired regarding the nature of investigation, because if a detailed investigation had already been done as is sought to be now suggested, there is no reason why a final report could not have been filed by the investigating agency in the normal course of events and needed an order to do so from this Court. The entire investigation and the closure report therefore lack bonafide,” the court stated.
On the intervening night of August 13 and August 14 of 2017, Vikrant was out for dinner as per his mother. His dead body was discovered on the railway track on August 14. An inquest proceeding was initiated under Section 174 of CrPC on August 14, 2017 which remained inconclusive.
As the family reported, the police station took one year to register the complaint. A complaint was registered on 29 June 2018 after deceased’s family repeatedly approached the higher authorities.
