BILASPUR: The Chhattisgarh High Court has directed the CBI to probe the murder of a couple and their two minor sons that took place in the state's Mahasamund district in 2018.
Justice Goutam Bhaduri on Friday passed the order on a petition filed by a family member of the deceased persons, which claimed that the investigation carried out by the local police was "shoddy", and directed to hand over the case to the CBI.
The High Court held that, "perusal of the material seized along with the affidavit of the State (in the case) do not inspire confidence of fair investigation."
On the intervening night of May 30 and 31, 2018, health worker Yogmaya Sahu (30), her husband Chaitanya (31) and their sons Kunal (9) and Tanmay (7) were killed in a government quarter in Kishanpur village's sub-health centre premises.
The police arrested Dharmendra Bariha of the village in connection with the murder and later based on his narco analysis, four more accused - then sarpanch of Kishanpur Suresh Khunte, Phoolsingh Yadav, Gaurishankar Kewat and Akhandal Pradhan - were arrested in 2019.
The five accused are in jail and the case is under trial in the district court. Dissatisfied with the police investigation, Chaitanya's father Babulal Sahu had approached the High Court seeking to get the matter further investigated by other agencies, claiming that the police had failed to carry out a fair probe.
As per the order, the petitioner's counsel Raghvendra Pradhan submitted that "the house where the four murders took place was under the CCTV surveillance." in the press conference (after the offence), the then Superintendent of Police came out with a statement that the digital video recording (DVR of the CCTV) has been seized, but the case diary or the final report is silent about such seizure".
Bariha was made an accused on the report of Suresh, who was subsequently found to be involved in the crime.
The police were helping the accused, who were involved in the business of alcohol and drugs, for which a monthly payment was being made to the police, which was revealed in the narco test, the petitioner's counsel argued.
After hearing the arguments of both the parties, the High Court had reserved its order on March 14. In its order passed on Friday, the court noted that certain links were missing in the case and they were serious in nature.
"Prima facie, perusal of the material seized along with the affidavit of the state do not inspire confidence of fair investigation, as such, I deem it proper to direct further investigation of the matter by the CBI," Justice Bhaduri observed.
The CBI will further investigate the case and proceed in accordance with the law within a period of four months from the date of receipt of a copy of the order, the court said.