Junaid lynching caseHC rejects father’s plea for CBI probe, says case not fit for its intervention

The Punjab and Haryana high court on Monday dismissed a petition seeking a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the lynching of Junaid Khan, a Faridabad youth, in June on board a Mathura-bound train, allegedly by right-wing sympathisers.

Junaid’s father Jalaludin had filed the petition last month. A single-judge bench of Justice Rajan Gupta while pronouncing the judgment said the petitioner could not bring before court any flaw in the investigation by the Haryana police, state’s additional advocate general Deepak Sabharwal said. The detailed judgment is awaited. The petition was reserved for judgment on November 17.

In his petition on October 25, Jalaludin had sought a CBI probe arguing that the Haryana Police had deliberately distorted all witnesses’ statements to introduce “ambiguity, discrepancies and contradictions” to benefit the accused.

“The stab injuries to two cousins accompanying Junaid and his lynching were motivated by deep-rooted communal hatred against the community the victims belonged to,” Junaid’s father had alleged in his petition. He had also submitted that the conduct of the accused and others in the lynch mob was concealed and projected as if the occurrence/events were spontaneous. “The police deliberately acted with undue haste because the crime had attracted huge nationwide outcry,” he had said.

Junaid (16) was stabbed to death when he along with his brothers was returning home to Khandawli village after shopping for Eid in Delhi. His body was dumped close to Asaoti village in Faridabad district.

Haryana had defended the investigation arguing that the family did not lodge any protest on the investigation before the trial court. “Now, the challan has been filed and charges have been framed against the accused,” Sabharwal had submitted arguing that petition was not maintainable as investigation had been concluded.

Out of the six accused, Naresh Kumar and Rameshwar Dass have been charged with murder.

The government had also claimed that Junaid’s family demanded ₹2 crore for ‘settlement’ of the case from the accused. The family refuted the claim and insisted that it was an attempt to defame them.