Court asks DCP to monitor murder case of 23-yr-old man's death

A Delhi court has directed the deputy commissioner of police concerned to monitor the probe into the mysterious death of a 23-year-old man after his mother alleged that he was killed by his close female friend at her residence in south west Delhi's Dwarka last year.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sumedh Kumar Sethi gave the direction on the plea of victim Arnav Duggal's mother Anu Duggal, who alleged that a "biased" investigation was being conducted.

The court, which refrained from expressing any opinion on the conduct of the investigating officer, said, Given the seriousness of the allegations and the peculiar facts of the case, let a copy of the order be sent to the DCP concerned through the office of Commissioner of Police, Delhi with directions to monitor the probe in the present case.

The court has also accepted the mother's plea to obtain a certified copy of the investigation record to be kept in the court in a sealed cover.

The complainant submits that as she has lost her son, the least that can be expected is that she be told about the details of the investigation. Therefore, the application at hand is allowed.

"The complainant is at liberty to move appropriate application for certified copies in prescribed format and the Ahlmad (clerk or custodian of files) shall de-seal the envelope for supply of such copies and shall re-seal it after such copies are supplied, the court said in the recent order.

The complainant had alleged that her son Arnav was strangled to death by his friend at her Dwarka residence on June 13 last year.

The court had, in February this year, directed the police to lodge of FIR in the case against the woman and her father and had pulled up the police for deliberately attempting to portray it as a case of suicide.

Following the court's order, the police had registered a case of murder.

The court had slammed the Delhi Police for its shoddy probe into the mysterious death of Arnav, who was a manager at the high-end ITC Grand Bharat here, with a direction to register an FIR to probe his "tragic death" saying the case required thorough investigation to unearth the "blatant attempt" of the police to give it the colour of suicide.

It has also ordered an inquiry into the alleged lapses on the part of the police officials involved in the case and directed that strict action be taken if a deliberate attempt to scuttle the probe was found.

The court had transferred the probe from Inspector Sunil Jain, the investigating officer, saying it be given "to some other responsible and senior officer".

Arnav's mother, in her plea seeking FIR into the matter, alleged various contradictions and discrepancies in the investigation by the police and that it was hand-in-glove with the accused.

The court had accepted the contention of the complainant and said the ligature marks found on the backside of victims neck hinted at strangulation and not hanging.

It had also noted that the accused woman had said she had ended her relationship with the victim but she had stayed with him a night before the incident.