The judgment of Jharkhand High Court in Rupa Tirkey alleged suicide case has proved to be a Gordian knot for Jharkhand Police and the government as the court while handing over investigation of this case to the CBI has pointed out loopholes of the police investigation.
Notably, the detailed order running in 53 pages of the single bench of Justice Sanjay Kumar Dwivedi has listed as many as nine grounds to justify why this case needs CBI investigation.
On September 1, the court directed the CBI to take over the investigation of Rupa Tirkey’s death case, describing it as ‘rarest of rare case’. She was a sub inspector of Jharkhand police who died in a mysterious situation.
The court observed that the police took it as a suicide case despite injury found on the body of the deceased. The court also pointed out that the viscera of the deceased were not preserved by police for forensic examination. The court said that police on the first day declared it a case of suicide.
The court wanted to know as to why police started two parallel investigations as it was registered as unnatural death soon after police lodged an FIR.
The court observed the state police frequently changed investigating officers of the case as investigating officers were changed four times. Court said that the police did not lodge an FIR on the basis of the written complaint of the mother of the deceased who had pointed fingers at many high ups.
There were other grey areas which prompted the court to order the CBI probe including telephonic interactions among powerful persons, officials and suspects. She was found hanging at her official residence in naked condition and there was bleeding from her private part. But all these were ignored and even bed sheets were not preserved for forensic examination.