Many registered unnatural death (UD) cases in Odisha are not meeting judicial end as due process of criminal law is not followed by the police. While reports of such instances are galore, in one case the Odisha High Court on Thursday issued notices to the State Government seeking details.
Adjudicating a writ petition filed by a Baleswar-based journalist over the suspicious death of a 14-year-old schoolboy, Justice SC Parija issued notices to the State DGP, Baleswar SP and Simulia police station in-charge officer, among others.
Harish Chandra Shaw in his petition has alleged that Narottam Sahoo, a Class-IX student of Kanhei Bandha High School, was found hanging from a ceiling fan in his home at Maharara village under the Simulia PS in Baleswar district on October 3, 2012.
While Narottam’s family did not bring this to the notice of police, the Gram Rakshi reported about the death to the police, following which a UD case was registered at the Simulia PS and an IO was entrusted to investigate the cause of the death.
“But the IO directed the villagers to cremate the body without even conducting an inquest of the body or sending it to hospital for post-mortem,” informed the petitioner’s advocate Nishikant Mishra.
After getting relevant information about the case through a Right to Information (RTI) Act application, the journalist decided to approach the High Court stating that the inquest, inquiry and investigation of sudden, suspicious or unnatural deaths are necessary under the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) to ascertain the causes of deaths and to apprehend and punish the offenders, if any, Mishra said.