HC held that police had sufficient opportunity, but didn’t register an FIR to conduct

Celebrity manager Disha Salian

Police conducted a probe under Section 174 of the erstwhile Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), a provision with “li­mited scope’’, the court said. The section is meant to find ‘cause of death’ when a death is reported as a suicide and an ADR is registered.

The state and Pasbola said the father can file a private complaint before a magistrate for police to probe. HC said wi­th two probes that went on for almost six years, it would be improper to ask Salian to now seek a police probe order from a magistrate. The judges said Ojha is right, the magistrate has no power to direct CBI to investigate.

HC held that police had sufficient opportunity, but didn’t register an FIR to conduct a thorough probe, instead they carried on a probe “inadequate and insufficient’’ in the facts of the case. Ojha argued for any suspicious death, po­lice were mandated to file an FIR and then investigate.

Simultaneously, “care should be taken that no innocent person is harassed and the offenders, if any, are made to face the trial,” the judgment authored by Justice Kotwal said. Making no reference to names, HC said, “Nobody shall be treated as an accused unl­e­ss in the opinion of invest­iga­t­i­ng officer there are sufficient grounds to raise reason­a­ble suspicion against him de­pe­n­ding on the material co­lle­c­t­ed during the investigation.” Interact with the family with sensitivity, HC directed CBI on Wednesday.

MUMBAI: Bombay high court bench of Justices Sarang Kotwal and R R Bhonsale said the Disha Salian case “investigation carried out by police raises more questions than it answers,” hence a CBI probe was necessary. The father’s counsel, Nilesh Ojha, cited “suspicious circumstances” to seek a CBI probe as he argued her death was “the outcome of a deep-rooted conspiracy involving powerful people”. HC said, “We have not made any observations again­st any particular individual. HC, on being shown documents including the panchanama, photograp­hs of the body, and other details from the inquiry, raised questions on various aspects it fo­und “suspicious”, includi­ng whether injuries were consistent with a fall from such a height and details regarding clothes. He said neither parent raised “any suspicion’’ in their st­atements during two probes.

HC had last Friday reserved for orders her father’s plea to probe the death as a murder, not suicide or accident. Th­at would be strictly within the realm of the investigation. Kuldeep Patil, CBI couns­el, informed the court the ag­e­ncy had never thus far probed Disha’s death. Hiray argued the injuries included a skull fracture consistent with such a fall.