Bombay HC seeks to examine material relied on to file closure report in Pune woman’s death in 2021

A bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Amit Borkar was hearing a PIL filed by BJP leader Chitra Wagh that sought registration of an FIR in the case.

On May 9, 2021, Advocate General Birendra Saraf, representing the state government, produced a report of the Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), based on the enquiry conducted under Section 174 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), which found that the death had occured due to suicide or an accident.

The court also perused the affidavit of a police inspector, which referred to the two orders of a magistrate court on March 5, 2021, through which separate applications under Section 156 (3) of the CrPC seeking magisterial probe were rejected. The magistrate had refused the pleas on the ground that they did not disclose the occurrence of any cognisable offence.

“For the satisfaction of the court, we need to examine the evidence collected during the course of investigation, based on which a closure report dated May 9, 2021, was filed,” the bench noted while seeking affidavit from the concerned authority before next date of hearing on December 16.