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'Publicity interest litigation': Court on transferring Delhi murder case to CBI
Shraddha Walkar murder: She was killed allegedly by her live-in partner Aaftab Poonawala.
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday rejected a petition - seeking transfer of investigation in the Shraddha Walkar Murder case - from the Delhi Police's crime branch to CBI. The court said that "this is nothing but a publicity interest litigation". The high court further noted that it "is not a monitoring agency, which would look into the probe carried by the police so far".
A plea - filed by advocate Joshina Tuli - had sought the transfer of the case to CBI, stressing that the probe cannot be efficiently carried out due to staff paucity as well as lack of sufficient technical and scientific equipment to find out the evidence and the witnesses as the incident had taken place about six months back. The petitioner had also raised concerns about the presence of media personnel and people at the crime scene.
On Tuesday, a bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad said that when the parents are not aggrieved with the police's investigation, the petitioner - being a stranger - cannot question the police's investigation. "We are not a monitoring agency. This is nothing more than a Publicity Interest Litigation. The police are doing the investigation," the court underlined.
"Why should we doubt the police? For obvious reasons, you have filed the petition," it added. During the hearing, advocate Sanjay Lao, standing counsel (criminal) of the Delhi Police told the court that 80 per cent of the investigation was complete, adding that teams are already probing the matter, where one team is in Himachal Pradesh.
The counsel for the Centre told the court that there is no doubt with the police's investigation and the petitioner cannot dictate how investigation should be carried out.
Shradda Walkar was murdered allegedly by her live-in partner - Aaftab Poonawala - in May. Poonawala, after killing her, had hacked her body into many pieces, police have said. He has been in police custody since last week. The killing has sparked huge public anger.
