Patna HC reopens suspected unnatural death case, orders IG to reinvestigate

The Patna High Court has ordered a re-investigation into a woman's 2021 death, quashing the police's closure report amid allegations of incomplete inquiry.

The Patna high court has quashed the closure report submitted by the Begusarai police in an alleged suicide case of Birpur and the 2025 order of the Judicial Magistrate, 1st Class, Begusarai, while ordering re-investigation of the case by Inspector General of Police, Vikas Vaibhav.

Patna high court (HT Photo)

Without expressing any opinion on the merits of the case and the veracity of the materials collected during earlier investigation, the bench of Justice Sandeep Kumar observed that “Vikas Vaibhav shall commence the fresh investigation of the case forthwith and he shall be free to constitute his own team”.

The order was passed on April 8 and uploaded on Friday.

The case involves the death of a woman in 2021 and while hearing the petition filed by her daughter Tejaswini Kumari seeking re-investigation/de novo investigation on the plea that the police investigation is incomplete and deliberately directed away from the real line of investigation, the court ordered re-investigation to bring out actual and the whole truth.

The woman was found dead on April 4, 2021 at Kasturba Gandhi Balika Avasiya Vidyalaya, Begusarai. The woman worked there as a warden. The petitioner also alleged that her FIR was not accepted by the Birpur police station after the incident.

“The police officers of Begusarai district shall extend all cooperation in the expeditious investigation and supervision of this case. The investigation shall be conducted in a holistic and comprehensive manner in accordance with law,” the bench said.

The court said that in a case of unnatural death, which appears to be suicide, it is imperative for the investigating officer to conclusively establish suicide.

“In the present case, there is no suicide note or verifiable psychological suicidal history supported by the independent witnesses to prove suicide. The sole statement of the alleged suspected accused Rohit Kumar could not be the sole ground to point towards a pre-existing suicidal tendency of the deceased mother of the petitioner since Rohit Kumar is not only one of the suspected accused, but his brother is also a suspected accused, who is alleged to have had taken ₹15 lakh from the deceased mother of the petitioner as per the version of the petitioner,” he added.

The bench said that “a bold statement before the police that one fine day the aforesaid Rohit Kumar had seen the deceased mother trying to pour kerosene on herself does not establish conclusively the suicidal tendency”.

“From the perusal of the records of the case, it appears that the investigation since its inception has been on the presumption that the deceased had committed suicide. It is incumbent upon the investigating officer to conduct a holistic investigation to uncover the actual truth,” the bench added.

According to the prosecution, the deceased left her house on April 4, 2021, for the aforesaid school, where she was working as a warden, saying that she will come back home by evening. However, at around 2pm, the petitioner received a phone call and when the petitioner reached there along with her family members, she saw the dead body of her mother, lying on the floor. Later, she was shown pictures of her deceased mother by the police officials and local people who had gathered there, in which her mother was seen to be in sitting position, with a noose around the neck and the rope looped from a ceiling fan and her body was covered with dirt and dust.

Thereafter, the petitioner along with her family members performed the last rites of her mother and on the very next date on April 5, the petitioner approached Birpur Police Station to register an FIR naming Kaushal Kumar and Rohit Kumar as accused.

The SHO of Birpur Police Station refused to lodge an FIR against the above mentioned suspects stating that the petitioner was not present at the time of the incident and insisted that the FIR would be registered only if the petitioner gave an application in accordance with the direction of the SHO.

The present FIR came to be lodged based on the new complaint which was drafted as per the direction of the SHO and prepared by the scribe (katib), Prabhakar Kumar, and was later signed by the petitioner.