HC rejects plea for CBI probe into Kerala Dalit woman’s murder

The Kerala High Court on Monday rejected the plea for a CBI probe into the rape and murder of a Dalit woman in Perumbavoor near here last month, noting that a new Special Investigation Team had been set up in the case.

Passing orders on two Public Interest Litigations (PILs), a division bench comprising acting Chief Justice Thottathil B Radhakrishnan and Justice Anu Sivaraman noted that a new SIT had been constituted to probe the case and ruled that there was no need for CBI investigation at this stage.

Opposing the PILs which sought CBI probe, the state government informed the court that the investigation by the SIT into the case was going on in a satisfactory manner.

Read:Kerala police closing in on Dalit woman’s murderer

When the petitioner sought a copy of the postmortem report, the court said the party had no right to make such claims. Ernakulam Range IG Mahipal Yadav, a key member of the probe team, was present in the court.

A report on the progress of the investigation was submitted to the court in a sealed cover. Meanwhile, Yadav filed a petition in the court against the direction of Police Complaints Authority to appear before it for offering an explanation regarding ‘lapses’ in the investigation into the murder of the 30-year-old woman.

The high court is likely to hear the petition on Wednesday.

The woman, a law student who hailed from a poor family, was allegedly raped and brutally assaulted using sharp- edged weapons before being murdered at her house in nearby Perumbavoor on April 28.

The new LDF government, which assumed office in Kerala after the recent assembly elections, in one of its first decisions, appointed senior woman IPS officer ADGP B Sandhya as the head of a new team to probe the case.

The murder was in focus during the assembly polls campaign with political parties attacking the then UDF regime for tardy progress in the investigation and failure to nab the culprits.