SC orders fresh probe into death of NLU Jodhpur student in 2017
Sep 16, 2020
New Delhi [India], September 16 : The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered a fresh investigation into the "suspicious" death of a National Law University (NLU), Jodhpur student in the year 2017.
A bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Rohinton Nariman, directed that a de novo (fresh) investigation be carried out in the death of a law student and also set aside the closure report filed by the Rajasthan Police in the case.
The order came on a plea, filed by the mother of the deceased student, seeking transfer of the probe from Jodhpur, Rajasthan Police to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or alternatively to a court-monitored Special Investigation Team (SIT).
Earlier, the bench had pulled up the Rajasthan Police for the final report filed by it in an attempt to close the case. The bench on the last hearing, while observing that the report was an "eye-wash", had said that there is a need for a fresh investigation.
"We all can see that this report is a complete eye-wash and there is a need for a fresh investigation. This is not the way," the bench had said.
On July 8, the top court had granted the Rajasthan Police two months deadline to complete the investigation into the death of NLU student Vikrant Nagaich.
Neetu Kumar Nagaich, the mother of the deceased student, had approached the apex court and accused the state police of "lackadaisical and callous manner of the probe" into the FIR lodged on June 29, 2018, with Jodhpur's Mandore police station.
She has sought an independent inquiry while complaining of a shoddy probe with probable collusion to shield some influentials. The mother of the 21-year-old NLU student claimed that the FIR in the case was not registered for a period of 10 months from the date when the incident occurred and that it was reluctantly filed thereafter.
Three years since, the investigation is at a standstill with no progress and no chargesheet filed in the case, the plea said. It also alleged that the state was "criminally negligent in the investigation" or was "trying to cover" up for the perpetrators or had some malafide intention.
The third-year law student Vikrant was found dead on August 14, 2017, under unnatural circumstances near a railway track opposite the university. The authorities had tried to present the case as that of an alleged suicide due to depression.
