NewDelhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) revelation in the murder of seven-year-old Pradyuman Thakur has yet again turned the gaze towards an oft-repeated phenomenon in various state police probes – of police implicating a wrong person or presenting false proof in sensational murder crimes in a tearing hurry under “media pressure” to deliver.The Pradyuman case was claimed to have been cracked by the Haryana police within 24 hours with the arrest of a conductor, who was made to “confess” to the crime before the media. CBI has now turned the theory on its head, saying a senior student killed Pradyuman.
CBI specified in its press statement: “After thorough investigation based on scientific evidence including inspection of scene of crime, forensic analysis, analysis of CCTV footage, analysis of various call records and questioning of several persons, CBI apprehended the said student.”
Clearly, Haryana Police failed to go through this evidence in its urge to solve the case. The accused student was, in fact, a prime witness for Haryana Police, which recorded his statement under Section 164 of Code of Criminal Procedure in court.
Veteran CBI investigators told that such wrong probes, besides raising avoidable societal concerns, also have political ramifications. “UP Police wrongly arrested people for rape and murder of two girls in Badaun in 2014 who were found hung from a tree. The then UP government faced all-round flak for the crime. A CBI probe through forensic analysis and call records proved the girls had committed suicide… but by then the media discourse had been set,” a senior officer who probed the case told.
CBI took its time in ascertaining the truth in the Badaun case – it spent almost a month and a half dissecting the Pradyuman case too. “This is the way murder cases should be probed – out of media gaze,” said the officer, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The CBI probe into the Himachal Pradesh rape-and-murder case of a minor girl is also threatening to explode in the face of the state police as forensic tests do not point to the role of the five accused arrested in the matter by the police. The case has already caused damage to the Virbhadra Singh government, with the BJP making it a major poll issue in the state election.
The hurry exhibited by the state police to solve the case under the media gaze was accompanied by custodial killing of a suspect for which senior police officers of the state are now in the dock. Though the CBI did not exactly cover itself in glory in the Aarushi murder case, botch-ups in other recent serious cases by state police only make a case for CBI to step in sooner than later.
In the case of 15-year Junaid Khan, who was killed by a mob on a train in June, the state’s law officers have taken up cudgels against the victim’s family in court, alleging they want a “compromise” with the accused while the family says the Haryana police have deliberately weakened the case. An additional Haryana Advocate General had to resign after the trial court noted that he was in fact helping the counsel of the accused. In the case of murder of Pehlu Khan in Alwar in April by cow-vigilantes, Rajasthan Police is under fire for giving a clean chit to six accused named by the victim in his dying declaration and diluting charges. CBI officials, however, say they have limited workforce and capacity to take up murder probes.
“State police forces have lost credibility. It is a sad commentary on them,” said a former CBI director.
Bureau Report
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