Terming the investigation conducted by the local police and the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) as “shoddy”, the High Court of Karnataka directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to conduct de novo investigation into the murder of M. Srinivas, former president of the Kolar Zilla Panchayat.
“It is a classic illustration for transfer of investigation to CBI, not for conduct of further investigation, but for conduct of de novo (from the beginning) investigation. Such a direction is not merely warranted, it is imperative, as both the local police and the CID have completely drowned the whispers of truth into deep waters by slipshod investigations,” the court observed.
Justice M. Nagaprasanna passed the order while allowing a petition filed by S. Chandrakala, wife of Srinivas, who had sought transfer of probe to the CBI.
Glaring lacunae
While listing lapses and callousness in the investigation, the court said that “glaring lacunae in the investigation does not inspire even a modicum of confidence in the conduct of investigation by the local police or the CID.”
The court pointed out that in both the investigations none of the mahazars were videographed as is necessary in law; no blood test of any of the accused was conducted as the body of the accused and their clothes were all blood stained; no investigation took place to trace the movement of the accused prior to the incident; and the mobile phones of eight accused were missing even now.
Even the Call Details Reports (CRDs) of mobile phones of accused persons were not collected but they were collected on the direction issued by the court, and the mobile phone tower dumps of places where the accused moved prior to the incident have not been taken, the court said, while pointing out that even some of the weapons used for the murder were sent for forensic laboratory much later.
Even CCTV footages of movements of accused were not collected despite accused themselves had disclosed about their movement in the statement given to the police, the court said.
“The investigating officers of both the agencies have miserably failed to inspire even a semblance of confidence in the conduct of investigation, which erodes public confidence in the conduct of investigation particularly in murder cases,” the court observed.
SPP says he can’t defend shoddy probe
In a rare instance, veteran advocate C.H. Hanumantharaya, who represented the CID as Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) in the case, was candid in admitting that the “investigation conducted is so shoddy that it fails to follow rudimentary principles of conduct of investigation.”
The SPP accepted that the investigating officers of local police or even the CID had not done enough to unearth the truth while pointing out that “it is a sorry state of affairs where the investigation is carried out in this manner in a case of murder.”
Published – March 18, 2025 10:16 pm IST
