The Jharkhand High Court on Monday directed the CBI to take over the ongoing inquiry into the Bakoria case in which 12 CPI (Maoists) were reportedly killed by the police in an encounter claimed to had taken place under the Satbarwa police station area in Palamu district on June 8, 2015.

Delivering the order on a petition (WB (Cr) 312/2016) Jawahar Yadav v/s State of Jharkhand, Justice Rongon Mukhopadhyay stated that CBI inquiry was needed in the case and is in the interest of justice.

Senior counsel RS Mazumdar who appeared on behalf of the petitioner stated the judge has opined that investigation conducted by the CID so far have eroded the faith of the people.

Mazumdar said he had pointed out several mistakes in the investigation  carried out by the state agency so far. He said that independent witnesses were not examined in the magisterial inquiry in the case. He further stated out of the 12 deceased persons five were minors. He said added there was no criminal history of the deceased persons except two adding they too were not accused of very serious crimes.

The petitioner’s counsel also pointed that statement of police officer Harish Pathak was not recorded by the investigating officer. He added Pathak was very much present in place of occurrence of the incidents and it is evident from photos taken just after the encounter. Pathak had later registered his statements before the NHRC and the CID in this regard.

According to the FIR registered with the Satbarwa police station in connection with the case the OC Md Rustam received information regarding movement of CPI (Maoists) at around 9 : 30 pm on June 8 2015. The OC along with a strong contingent of police force rushed to the suspected spot and started checking of vehicles on the road. The state police was also joined by the CoBRA battalion.