BHOPAL: More than 28 years after firebrand Madhya Pradesh Youth Congress leader Sarla Mishra’s “suicidal” death at her house in Bhopal, a judicial magistrate first class (JMFC) court in Bhopal has ordered the police to reinvestigate the case while observing that earlier investigations appeared to have been incomplete.
The court of JMFC Palak Rai, in its order, stated that the facts in Anurag Mishra’s (younger brother of Sarla Mishra) protest petition and witness statements (the police filed a closure report in this) point to an incomplete investigation. On this ground, the court ordered the TT Nagar police to reinvestigate the case.
The order came 56 days after the Madhya Pradesh High Court directed the CJM, Bhopal to take a call on the final report of the police as per the law.
Anurag Mishra said, “Wednesday’s order has raised our hopes of justice. It was a murder, but was deemed a suicide by the local police under political pressure of those in power in 1997.”
Reacting to Mishra’s charge, Congress MP Digvijaya Singh (MP CM in 1997) said on Thursday, “The case isn’t new, but is more than 20 years old; get it probed as many times as one wants. I welcome it.”
Anurag Mishra made a fresh allegation, “My elder brother Anand Mishra met Sarla Didi two or three days before the February 14, 1997 incident, when my sister told him about growing bitterness and differences between her, then CM Digvijaya Singh and his brother Laxman Singh, Rajgarh MP. Why didn’t the police record my elder brother’s statements?”
The 28-yr-old case and unanswered questions
Hailing from Narmadapuram, Sarla Mishra was a firebrand state Youth Congress leader.
She is believed to have had strong connections with Congress politicians.
On February 14, 1997, she was found severely burnt inside her government house in Bhopal.
She died at New Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital on Feb 19, 1997.
The TT Nagar police of Bhopal district, after three years long probe concluded it to be a case of suicide and closed the probe in the case in 2000.
The closure report, however, was filed by the police in the court more than 19 years later in Bhopal.
Her brother Anurag petitioned against the closure report and alleged that it was actually a case of murder.