Bombay HC
The section is meant to find ‘cause of death’ when a death is reported as a suicide and an ADR is registered.
The police conducted a probe under Section 174 of the erstwhile Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), a provision with “limited scope,” HC said. Ojha argued that for any suspicious death, the police were mandated to register an FIR and then investigate.
But simultaneously, “care should be taken that no innocent person is harassed and the offenders, if any, are made to face the trial,” the judgement authored by Justice Kotwal said. The HC ruling made no reference to any names and directed: “Nobody shall be treated as an accused unless in the opinion of the 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.
Therefore, an investigation by CBI is necessary,” HC said.
Mumbai: Observing that the June 8, 2020, death of celebrity manager Disha Salian in suburban Mumbai had “many glaring discrepancies” which necessitated proper and substantive investigation, Bombay High Court directed Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to register a first information report (FIR) and probe the case thoroughly. “Suspicious circumstances” surrounding the death necessitate the registration of an FIR, an HC bench of Justices Sarang Kotwal and RR Bhonsale held. But HC said it has “not made any observations against any particular individual. A delayed spot panchanama nine hours later, on June 9, has “indications that the police were not treating the case as an accidental death case but they were suspecting foul play,” HC observed. The father’s counsel, Nilesh Ojha, had cited “suspicious circumstances” to seek a proper CBI probe as he argued her death was “the outcome of a deep rooted conspiracy involving powerful people.”
No one is to be named as an accused without sufficient grounds, HC clarified. “The investigation carried out by the police raises more questions than it answers. HC had last Friday reserved for orders her father’s plea to probe the death as a murder, not suicide or an accident.