- (1.) WE have heard learned Counsel for the petitioner and Sri G.S. Hajela for the C.B.I. We have also perused the two investigation progress reports submitted by the C.B.I. dated 4-9-2006 and 8-3-2007.
(2.) AT the outset we must mention our utter disappointment with the one sided nature of the investigation conducted by the C.B.I. in ten months pursuant to our order dated 26-5-2006. We were also a little puzzled as although Sri Hajela mentioned that he had no knowledge of the contents of the sealed envelop handed over to the Court he was fully aware of its contents and raised some arguments in defence of the same referring to averments made in the documents therein such as the report of the Medical Board of the AIIMS. We need say nothing more on this. We had handed over the investigation to the C.B.I. by our order dated 26-5-2006 because we had found the investigation by the local police Ram Nagina Singh, Inspector Kotwali Hata, District Kushinagar highly suspicious and were hopeful that the investigation by the C.B.I. would be totally above board and help unravel the truth. But we regret to note that the investigation being conducted by the C.B.I. has belied our expectation, and leaves much to be desired.
(3.) THE facts of this case as mentioned in our earlier order were that the deceased Ramesh Chand Pandey had lost his wife some years back because of which he had become mentally depressed. Taking advantage of his depressed state the accused Manokamna Tewari (who was a police constable posted at P.S. Tarkulwa, Kushinagar) and his wife, Smt. Rajkumari Devi, had persuaded him to stay in their house and they were trying to grab the landed property owned by the deceased. Smt. Rajkumari Devi had even obtained a sale-deed of some property of the deceased. The petitioner, the informant who was the uncle of the deceased, had filed a Suit No. 233 of 2005 before the Civil Judge (SD) Deoria, for an injunction to restrain Ramesh Chand Pandey from alienating the landed property inherited by him. One month prior to his murder on 28-1-2006 the deceased had started visiting the house of the informant/petitioner Vidya Shanker Pandey, and had started complaining that he was afraid that Manokamna Tewari and his wife were deceptively trying to grab his entire property. To forestall the deceased from coming out of their clutches, the deceased had been done to death by Manokamna Tewari and Smt. Rajkumari Devi in their house about which the informant received information on 28- 1-2006 at about 8.30 p.m., and that the accused had spread a rumour that the deceased had died due to heart attack. It seems that the F.I.R. was lodged by the informant Vidya Prakash Pandey on 31-1-2006 at 6.30 p.m. at P.S. Kotwali, Padrauna, District Kushinagar, after a post-mortem conducted on the deceased by Dr. S.N. Tripathi, M.O. Sadar Hospital Padrauna Kushinagar on 29-1- 2006 at 3 p.m. showed ante-mortem injuries which included abraded contusions on the occipital region of the head and face, a lacerated wound 5 cm x 1.2 cm x muscle deep over left ear (lobule of left ear was missing) contusions over the front of neck 1 cm above supera sternal notch, on the left side of the neck and on top of left shoulder (with dislocation of left shoulder joint) incised wound 3 cm x 0.2 cm x muscle deep over the right side face and multiple contusions over the left side back of the chest the internal examination showed fractures of Hyoid cartilage, and occipital bone, lacerations of the membranes of skull and brain with presence of clotted blood in cavity of the brain and in the thoracic cavity. Both lungs and trachea were congested and the cause of death was haemorrhage, shock and coma due to ante-mortem injuries.;