Other high-profile cases CBI botched up
27 Nov 2013 5:29 AM IST
The loopholes left in the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) probe into the Aarushi-Hemraj double murder case are not unique to the case.
CBI’s history of probing high-profile cases in the Delhi-NCR region tells a very sordid story of the investigating agency’s professional standards.
The agency was assigned three high-profile criminal cases — Aarushi-Hemraj double murder case, Nithari serial killings and Kavita Rani murder case that happened between 2006 and 2008, but failed to present a flawless report that was beyond questioning in all of them.
Coincidentally, during this period a Uttar Pradesh cadre IPS officer Arun Kumar, who was earlier posted as police chief in these districts was heading the crime branch of CBI as joint director.
The first of these cases came to CBI from Meerut district and involved the murder of a woman lecturer Kavita Rani (29) in Chaudhary Charan Singh University. Rani was reportedly murdered on 23 October, 2006, while returning home to Bulandshar district on the occasion of Diwali but her body could never be found.
Rani was allegedly close to three ministers of the then Mulayam Singh Yadav government — Merajuddin Ahmed, Babulal and Kiran Pal apart from the university’s vice-chancellor RP Singh and industrialist Dayanand Gupta.
The ministers — Ahmed and Babulal were forced to step down as Uttar Pradesh police tightened the noose. After CBI took over the investigation of the case it focused on ‘main accused’ Ravinder Pradhan, who allegedly acted as a link between Rani and these ‘VIPs’.
Pradhan went underground soon after and surrendered at a television channel’s studio in Noida. He was allegedly poisoned in Dasna Jail while he was still in judicial custody.
In the most infamous Nithari serial killings of Noida, which came into light on 26 December 2006, the agency could not collect any evidence of organ trading which was the initial direction of probe undertaken by Noida police and also suggested by the locals, medical and legal experts.
CBI never probed doctors and a local hospital allegedly involved in the organ trade racket but focused only on Moninder Singh Pandher and his servant Surinder Koli holding them as the main accused for killing over 30 children, including girls, whose skeletons were discovered from a drain near Pandher’s house.
‘The vital organs of the dead bodies were missing but their skeletons were intact. It was surely an organ trading racket which was deliberately neglected by the CBI for vested interests,’ said Satish Mishra, then president of sector 31 RWA, who brought the case into light.
In this case too the body of Jatin Sarkar, who dared to contest the CBI theory in the case, was found floating in Bhagirathi river in West Bengal. Sarkar was also the father of one of the victims, Pinki Sarkar.
After his death, Sarkar’s wife had filed a written complaint against some CBI officers for conniving in his murder.
Similarily, in Aarushi-Hemraj double murder case CBI was accused of trying to cover up the matter by filing a closure report but due to pressure from the public and media the court took a suo moto cognisance to start the trial.
In this case too the role of several big wigs — businessmen, doctors and bureaucrats — who were rounded up by Noida police was never probed.
CBI’s history of probing high-profile cases in the Delhi-NCR region tells a very sordid story of the investigating agency’s professional standards.
The agency was assigned three high-profile criminal cases — Aarushi-Hemraj double murder case, Nithari serial killings and Kavita Rani murder case that happened between 2006 and 2008, but failed to present a flawless report that was beyond questioning in all of them.
Coincidentally, during this period a Uttar Pradesh cadre IPS officer Arun Kumar, who was earlier posted as police chief in these districts was heading the crime branch of CBI as joint director.
The first of these cases came to CBI from Meerut district and involved the murder of a woman lecturer Kavita Rani (29) in Chaudhary Charan Singh University. Rani was reportedly murdered on 23 October, 2006, while returning home to Bulandshar district on the occasion of Diwali but her body could never be found.
Rani was allegedly close to three ministers of the then Mulayam Singh Yadav government — Merajuddin Ahmed, Babulal and Kiran Pal apart from the university’s vice-chancellor RP Singh and industrialist Dayanand Gupta.
The ministers — Ahmed and Babulal were forced to step down as Uttar Pradesh police tightened the noose. After CBI took over the investigation of the case it focused on ‘main accused’ Ravinder Pradhan, who allegedly acted as a link between Rani and these ‘VIPs’.
Pradhan went underground soon after and surrendered at a television channel’s studio in Noida. He was allegedly poisoned in Dasna Jail while he was still in judicial custody.
In the most infamous Nithari serial killings of Noida, which came into light on 26 December 2006, the agency could not collect any evidence of organ trading which was the initial direction of probe undertaken by Noida police and also suggested by the locals, medical and legal experts.
CBI never probed doctors and a local hospital allegedly involved in the organ trade racket but focused only on Moninder Singh Pandher and his servant Surinder Koli holding them as the main accused for killing over 30 children, including girls, whose skeletons were discovered from a drain near Pandher’s house.
‘The vital organs of the dead bodies were missing but their skeletons were intact. It was surely an organ trading racket which was deliberately neglected by the CBI for vested interests,’ said Satish Mishra, then president of sector 31 RWA, who brought the case into light.
In this case too the body of Jatin Sarkar, who dared to contest the CBI theory in the case, was found floating in Bhagirathi river in West Bengal. Sarkar was also the father of one of the victims, Pinki Sarkar.
After his death, Sarkar’s wife had filed a written complaint against some CBI officers for conniving in his murder.
Similarily, in Aarushi-Hemraj double murder case CBI was accused of trying to cover up the matter by filing a closure report but due to pressure from the public and media the court took a suo moto cognisance to start the trial.
In this case too the role of several big wigs — businessmen, doctors and bureaucrats — who were rounded up by Noida police was never probed.
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