The Allahabad High Court on Sunday sought to know from the Uttar Pradesh Government why the investigation in the Bulandshahr gangrape case be not handed over to the CBI.
Directing the State Government to file its reply by August 10, a division Bench of Chief Justice DB Bhosale and Justice Yashwant Varma also sought a report on status of probe in the case, including the "criminal antecedents, social background and political affiliations, if any", of the accused persons.
The court has taken suo motu cognisance of the July 29 incident when a group of criminals waylaid a car, carrying six members of a Noida-based family on their way to Shahjahanpur in western Uttar Pradesh, and sexually assaulted a minor girl and her mother after dragging them out of the vehicle.
The lucknow Bench of the High Court also sought within a week an appropriate reply from the Uttar Pradesh Government on a PIl seeking a direction for a CBI probe into the case.
A division Bench of justices Amreshwar Pratap Sahi and Vijay laxmi passed the order on the PIl filed by NGO We the People through its general secretary Prince lenin.
The court has listed the matter for further hearing on August 22. The court had asked the petitioner to file details of the alleged irregularities in the case. The petitioner filed a supplementary affidavit on Sunday entailing therein the alleged lapses in the investigation and the factors which had led to the filing of the petition showing lack of confidence in the probe process.