Jammu & Kashmir High Court: Dhiraj Singh Thakur, J. allowed a petition to direct the CBI to take charge of the present case.
The petitioner filed a Habeas Corpus Petition seeking appropriate direction to respondents to produce her son, who went missing in the custody of respondents. Petitioner also prayed for referring the investigation into the matter by the constitution of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) or in the alternative to refer the matter to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The petitioner’s son, Shakeel Ahmed, went missing on his way to Zairat at Kaliar Sharief in Roorkie, Uttrakhand under the custody of the respondents. The matter was investigated initially by the appropriate Police Station, as an FIR under Section 364 RPC was filed. The investigating officer recorded the statement of witnesses under Section 161 of CrPC and called the accused persons to the Police Station and interrogated them. However, no fruitful result was obtained pursuant to which, the investigating officer closed the case. The matter was again reopened by the Zonal Police Head Quarter and a Special Investigation Team (SIT) was formed by the Senior Superintendent of Police. However, the SIT also failed to arrive at any conclusion and was clueless about the disappearance of the son of the petitioner.
The respondents contended that the matter if referred to Crime Branch, should also involve the territorial jurisdiction between the two States i.e. the State of Jammu and Kashmir and the State of Uttrakhand.
The High Court allowed the appeal and was of the view that since the investigation would involve the areas beyond the territorial jurisdiction of the State of J&K where the Crime Branch cannot have any jurisdiction, it would be appropriate to refer the matter for investigation to the CBI under Section 364 of RPC. The Court also held that “it cannot be a silent spectator to the disappearance of the son of the petitioner who needs to be recovered and the matter investigated at the earliest.”[Sabza Begum v. State of J&K, 2019 SCC OnLine J&K 666, decided on 08-07-2019]
