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The recent flip-flop in the Ryan International School murder has once again raised questions – is the state police incompetent, or complicit with the culprits? How credible are the theories the CBI comes out with?
The Ryan School murder is just one of several cases where the State Police stood exposed as a corrupt – or incompetent – bunch of investigators. These botch-ups, and the subsequent contradicting investigations, allow defence lawyers to raise questions on the cases in court, resulting in big delays. Because of this police ineptitude or neglect, cases then get botched beyond repair and victim’s families become embroiled in endless fights for justice in the courts.
We bring you a list of four such cases in which the CBI investigation completely upended the state police’s probe:
Badaun Gang-Rape & Murder Case
On 27 May 2014, two girls, cousins and minors, were found hanging from a tree in Katra Sadatganj village in Badaun district in UP. The villagers alleged that the girls were first gangraped and then hanged from the tree. They also alleged the involvement of police officers in the incident.
Police: Rape & Murder
The UP Police registered an FIR of gangrape and murder against five persons, including two police constables. The police claimed, based on the forensics report, that the girls were raped and then hanged. But the victim’s family showed distrust in the UP Police probe since their own men were allegedly involved, and demanded a CBI probe. Eventually, the case was transferred to the CBI.
CBI: Suicide
But the CBI investigation of the incident took a complete about-turn when the agency claimed that the girls were neither raped nor murdered. They had committed suicide.
After conducting the probe for five months, the CBI said the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD) ruled out that the girls were sexually assaulted before death. Hence, the agency didn’t file a chargesheet against the five persons who were arrested by the police.
According to the CBI, the girls committed suicide because they were ashamed their uncle found out about their elder sister's relationship with Pappu Yadav, one of the accused who was arrested by the UP Police.
The CBI said that the younger sister was also desirous of a relationship with the same man. But the victim’s family has disregarded the CBI probe.
The CBI filed a closure report in December 2014 submitting in Badaun POSCO court. But the court rejected the closure report and summoned all the accused anyway.
Rizwanur Rehman Death Case
A rich Hindu girl, Priyanka Todi, falls in love with a poor Muslim boy, Rizwanur Rehman and eventually they get married in defiance of her parents’ objections. Rizwanur’s body was found on a railroad track on 21 September 2007 in Kolkata. Over the period of eight days that Priyanka lived at Rizwanur’s house after their marriage, the Kolkata police questioned the couple no less than three times because of pressure from the girl’s parents. The girl’s family was unhappy with the marriage because they thought that Rizwanur’s social and financial status wasn’t a good match with theirs.
Police: Suicide
The Kolkata Police swiftly labelled Rizwanur’s death a suicide, but his family rejected the claim. After much hue and cry and a candlelit march by the victim’s family, the State Government transferred the case to the CBI.
CBI: Abetment to Sucide
On the completion of the probe in 2011, the CBI filed a report in the court to slap the charge of abetment to suicide against Priyanka’s father, Ashok Todi, and six others in connection with the death of Rizwanur Rehman.
The CBI informed the court that Todi conspired with others to break their marriage on the day Priyanka left home.
In June 2017, the Calcutta High Court dismissed Todi’s and three others’ petition seeking quashing of the abetment to suicide levelled by the CBI.
Bhanwri Devi Murder Case
The Bhanwri Devi murder case is a perfect storm of sex, lies and CD. She signed her death warrant when she tried to blackmail one of Rajasthan’s most powerful politicians, Mahipal Maderna, the then-Cabinet Minister, by making a sex tape of him. She, in connivance with another politician, Malkhan Singh Bishnoi, and his sister Indira Bishnoi, planned the sex tape to defame Maderna and get him removed from the ministerial post, to Bishnoi’s political advantage.
On 1 September 2011, the 36-year-old Bhanwri Devi, a nurse in a government hospital, was abducted.
State Police Came Up Short
She was missing for over a month, but Rajasthan Police did nothing to ferret her out. In fact, the State Police, in an effort to hush up the case, claimed that Bhanwri Devi was seen speeding away from Bilara near Jodhpur in a Scorpio in the company of a Jalore-based Bishnoi gang.
CBI Cracked the Case In 100 Days
But the CBI cracked the case within 100 days of investigation. On 12 October 2011, the CBI took over the case and on 10 November, the sex tape of Maderna and Bhanwri Devi was aired on a news channel. Initially, Maderna maintained that he didn’t know Bhanwri, but once the sex tape surfaced, he could no longer deny it. In December, the CBI arrested Maderna and confronted him with other key suspects.
In January 2012, the CBI found the remains of Bhanwri Devi’s body.
The CBI filed three chargesheets and named 17 people in the murder. The last arrest of Indira Bishnoi was made from Madhya Pradesh, six years after the murder.
Aarushi-Hemraj Murder Case
The double murder of Aarushi and Hemraj is a classic case of a botched investigation. In May 2008, the duo was found murdered in Noida, but till now, the victims are awaiting justice.
State Police Called It ‘Honour Killing’
The initial probe carried out by the Noida Police concluded that Aarushi’s parents killed them both and the motive was honour killing. On 23 May 2008, Aarushi’s father, Rajesh Talwar, was arrested in the double murder. Unhappy with the Noida Police investigation, public demand for the CBI to intervene grew.
The CBI Files Closure Report
The State Government transferred the case to the CBI and on 1 June 2008, India’s Premier Investigative Agency took over the probe.
The first CBI Special Investigative Team (SIT) probe ruled out the theory of honour killing and arrested Aarushi’s father’s compounder Krishna and two domestic helpers, Rajkumar and Vijay Mandal. The CBI said that these three men had been drinking with Hemraj at Aarushi’s residence the day of the murders. When the three of them entered Aarushi’s room in a drunken state with the intention to rape her, she raised an alarm. In order to protect themselves, three of them killed both Aarushi and Hemraj and fled.
But the CBI scrapped its first SIT, as the CBI Director was unsatisfied with the investigation, and formed a fresh SIT team to probe the case. The second SIT, after completing the investigation, on 29 December 2010, filed a closure report in the court pointing to the involvement of the parents in the case. The report gave a clean chit to the domestic help.
The lower court took cognisance of the CBI’s closure report as a chargesheet. On the completion of the trial, the lower court convicted both parents for murder.
But the Allahabad High Court has now acquitted the Talwars on the benefit of doubt.
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