SC orders CBI probe into girl’s accidental death

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 24

The Supreme Court on Friday ordered a CBI probe into the death of a 22-year-old BA student who was killed while her four friends were injured when their car met with an accident on the Yamuna Expressway in January 2015.

A bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra ordered transfer of the case from Delhi Police Crime Branch to the CBI after the victim’s mother Neelam Mishra moved the top court. It asked the CBI to file a report before it after three months.

The bench clarified that the CBI should carry on the probe without being influenced by earlier probe.

Twenty-two-year-old Puja Mishra and her friends Neha, Prince, Gaurav and Shiv Kumar – all in their twenties and from Delhi -- were on their way to Mathura when their car was reportedly hit by a speeding vehicle and overturned.

A resident of Gole Market in Delhi, Puja was a student of School of Open Learning, University of Delhi. Her mother alleged that her daughter had been murdered even as police denied it.

The Delhi Police were investigating the matter after Neelam Mitra lodged a complaint at the Mandir Marg police station.

Puja was said to have received severe head injuries while Prince got his hand fractured, Shiv Kumar broke his leg, and Neha and Gaurav escaped with minor injuries.

But the deceased’s family alleged that Puja was abducted and her friends staged her death.