High Court orders reinvestigation

The widow had moved the High Court demanding CBI investigation into the death of her husband Dalbir Singh. She had alleged that it was a case of custodial death. Dalbir Singh was taken into police custody by Railway Police from the Railway Station at Jakhal in Haryana on the night of May 15,2008.

He was produced before the Illaqa Magistrate on May 16. The allegations against Dalbir Singh were that he was drunk and was behaving indecently at the Railway Station. Dalbir Singh was admitted in a hospital the same day and referred to PGI,Rohtak,where he died. The Railway Police filed a cancellation report giving a clean chit to its officer,saying no case was made out.

Justice Surya Kant remarked in the court,“The case should have been investigated by a police agency rather than the railway police. The investigating agency is obligated in law to ensure that an incident involving cognizable offence is investigated in a fair impartial and dispassionate manner and investigation is taken to its logical conclusion”.

Justice Kant added that to arrive at such a conclusion it is imperative that investigator should be free from bias and should act impartially. “The fact that petitioner’s husband died in police custody puts the investigating agency under a more onerous duty to ensure transparent investigation,the Court added.