Supreme Court
on Wednesday said unresolved crimes tend to erode public trust in institutions, which have been established for maintaining law and order, and ordered a
CBI probe
into the death of a 25-year-old Manipuri woman 11 years ago that has remained unsolved till date, reported.
Delhi Police have failed to bring to light the circumstances that led to the death of the woman in her rented house in south Delhi in 2013.
She was working in a call centre at Delhi.
A bench of Justices J K Maheshwari and Sudhanshu Dhulia passed the order on a plea filed by the family of the deceased seeking probe by CBI as Delhi Police failed to catch the killer and accused the cops of shielding the accused.
The bench said, “…Criminal
investigation
must be both fair and effective. We say nothing on the fairness of the investigation… but the fact that it has been ineffective is self-evident. The kith and kin of the deceased who live far away in Manipur have a logistical problem while approaching authorities in Delhi, yet they have their hope alive, and have shown trust and confidence in this system. We are therefore of the considered view that this case needs to be handed over to CBI for a proper investigation and also to remove any doubts in the minds of the appellants, and to bring the real culprits to justice.” The court noted that the woman’s death was not a case of suicide as the crime scene had blood spattered on the floor and the bed sheet was completely drenched in blood. “It appears to be a homicidal death and therefore the culprits must be apprehended,” the bench added.
The family had first approached Delhi HC for a CBI probe but the petition was dismissed on several grounds, including that the DNA of the semen samples recovered from crime scene did not match with the DNA samples of the accused and that her boyfriend who had not joined investigation could not be traced.