KOCHI: Kerala High Court on Tuesday ordered a CBI probe into the suspicious death of a 13-year-old girl in the bathroom of her residence located in the police quarters in Thiruvananthapuram on March 30, 2023.
Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas issued the order while allowing the petition filed by the mother of the deceased seeking a CBI probe into the case registered by the Museum police station.
The court said, "Unfortunately, despite the investigation continuing for the last eight months, no breakthrough has been made by the investigation team. The culprits remain at large." The court also pointed out that a reading of the statements given by some of the witnesses points out the suspicion of the involvement of certain persons.
However, effective questioning is not seen to have been made, and on the other hand, the investigation team has failed to probe deeper. Since the victim was residing inside the police quarters and various policemen used to visit their houses, the involvement of policemen also cannot be completely eschewed.
In such circumstances, the Court is of the view that this is a fit case where the investigation should be entrusted to the CBI. The postmortem opined that the death was due to intracranial haemorrhage. However, the postmortem also revealed that the minor child had been subjected to continuous acts of sexual abuse through vaginal and anal penetrations.
During the investigation, noticing the heinous nature of the alleged crime, the probe was entrusted to the District Crime Branch. The mother alleged that despite a serious crime having been reported, the investigating team has not been able to make any breakthrough by identifying the culprits.
Many material circumstances have been ignored, and no positive steps have been initiated to conduct a proper and scientific investigation. The investigation conducted so far has not been able to identify any of the accused and though there are several indications regarding persons who could fall within the zone of suspicion, none of them have been questioned effectively.
The petitioner pointed out that the involvement of police officers cannot be completely ousted since the child was found lying in the bathroom of her house in the police quarters of her parents.