BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court on Monday ordered the immediate transfer of the investigations into the mysterious case of techie Kumar Ajitabh going missing to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The case was being probed by the state’s special unit of Criminal Investigation Department (CID), to which it was transferred after Whitefield police and the state’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) were found incompetent to probe the case.
Ajitabh has been missing since December 18, 2017 after he had gone to meet an unknown person claiming to be a prospective buyer for his car. The High Court pointed out that no leads were obtained in the 10 months since the Patna-native went missing, and said it was due to the sheer lack of coordination between investigation agencies of the different states.
Justice Aravind Kumar passed this order while allowing the petition filed by Ajitabh’s father, Ashok Kumar Sinha, who had sought a transfer of the case to the CBI from the Whitefield police who had first registered the missing case. After the petition was filed, the state transferred the case to the SIT and later again transferred it to the special unit of CID.
Referring to the apprehension of the petitioner that his son might have been abducted for using him for anti-national activities, the court said it could not be completely ignored. The court clarified that the case had been transferred not due to laxity or inaction of the state police, but because a central investigation agency like the CBI would be able to coordinate possible multiple leads across the country in a better manner.
It also explained that the other reason for handing the probe over to the CBI was to instil confidence in the missing Ajitabh’s family members. Sinha has repeatedly expressed apprehensions that Ajitabh’s disappearance could be part of an organized crime ring or his skills being used for anti-national activities out of coercion. He also feared that his son could have been made a victim of organ-trafficking.
Ajitabh was working as software engineer in British Telecom in Bengaluru.
DEVELOPMENTS SO FAR
December 18, 2017: Whitefield resident Kumar Ajitabh receives a call from an unknown person claiming to be a prospective buyer for his car. Ajitabh leaves home around 6.30 pm to meet the buyer. He has been missing since then
December 20, 2017: Ajitabh’s friend and flatmate Ravi Kumar lodges a complaint with Whitefield Police Station
December 22, 2017: OLX shares initial information with cops
December 26, 2017: City police seek additional inputs
December 29, 2017: Ajitabh’s father Sinha lodges another complaint
January 3, 2018: OLX shares more information after city police warn of action
January 8, 2018: Police submit report to court
January 16, 2018: HC asks City Police Commissioner to constitute SIT. Later, case is handed over to CID
August 9, 2018: HC reserves orders on Sinha’s petition