Court asks police to conduct fair probe into murder of 23-yr-old man

A Delhi court has directed the police to conduct a fair probe into the murder of a man allegedly by his close female friend after his mother complained of laxity in the investigation.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sumedh Kumar Sethi gave the direction on the application filed by Anu Duggal, alleging that despite providing the names of suspects to the police, they were repeatedly trying to show the case as suicide and not taking action.

The court had on the last date of hearing directed lodging of FIR in the case against Megha Tiwari and her father R K Tiwari and had pulled up the police for deliberately attempting to portray it as a case of suicide.

Duggal, who said she has not been examined in the case yet, had lodged the complaint alleging that her 23-year-old son Arnav was strangled to death by Megha at her Dwarka residence on June 13 last year.

"Needless to say that it is expected from the investigating officer (IO) that he shall examine all persons whose version is pertinent to the case and collect all material that is relevant. It also goes without saying that investigation has to be conducted in a fair and impartial manner without any pre-conceived notions," the court said.

The court, which had earlier rejected the version of the accused father and daughter that Arnav took his life by hanging from a ceiling fan, said "It has already been pointed out by the court on the last date of hearing that one need not be a rocket scientist to know that there is some discrepancy in the version given by R K Tiwari (father of victim's female friend) regarding the fan in question vis-a-vis the version of the forensic team and what is apparent from the photographs of the fan. All these points shall be looked into by the IO."