Court pulls up cops for shoddy investigation

The travails didn't end there. "The next day, we told the police about the kidnapping and suspected murder but none of the police officials took note of the fact and did not investigate the case on those lines," added Santosh.


Life snffed out ealy:u00a0The teenager's abduction was witnessed by her
younger brother who reported the matter a day later. Pic/Mid Day

"Not only did they ignore our pleas, they even misbehaved with us and virtually threw us out of the police station," he added. The beleaguered father did not lose hope. "After being harassed by the local police, we met joint commissioner of police, Karnail Singh, and complained against the Kanjhawala SHO.u00a0 He asked the local police to file a report on the matter immediately after which the local police swung into action," Santosh said.

The police however registered the case under Section 302 of IPC (murder) on January 3, 2010, but did not add rape and kidnapping sections. The parents then moved the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Jan 6, 2010.

Meanwhile, senior police officials ordered vigilance inquiry into the matter. The vigilance report indicted the local police, saying they did not take proper action on time and in a way had given the accused a shelter. Based on this report, the local SHO OP Yadav was transferred to District Line.

The victim's family now felt that after the vigilance report indicting the local cops, the police might
add relevant sections to the case. But even after waiting for four months, nothing happened.u00a0 So they met DCP Chhaya Sharma on April 2010 following which the case was transferred to the district investigation unit. "It was very sad that the police ignored our complaints time and again. So we moved the court last September," said Santosh.

"The court was not satisfied by the repot filed by local ACP Ved Prakash in the matter and pulled him up as he had failed to explain what really had occurred. Police officials were supposed to file the final report of this incident by January 4 this year but nothing of that sort has been done so far. On Monday, I will raise this issue before the court," said Parvesh Tyagi, the family's counsel.