Rohtak: 'Shoddy' probe in murder case, court pulls up crime branch

Sunit Dhawan

Rohtak, March 8

A district court has pulled up the State Crime Branch for lack of scientific investigation and attempt to mislead the court in the Rohtak quadruple murder case.

The case

Rohtak-based property dealer Pardeep, his wife Babli and mother-in-law Roshni were shot dead on August 27, 2021. Pradeep’s daughter Tamanna was also shot at and sustained injuries. She succumbed to her injuries a few days later. The police had arrested Pradeep’s son Abhishek for the murders, who is now facing a trial in the case.

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Give details of correspondence, IO told

The court has directed the investigating officer to place on record the details of the correspondence made to the nodal officers concerned, along with the copy of all correspondence.

In an order passed on an application moved by accused Abhishek’s counsel Shiv Raj Malik, Dr Gagan Geet Kaur, Additional Sessions Judge-cum-Special Judge, Rohtak, stated: “An attempt is made to mislead the court…Evidently, time is being killed by the investigating agency..”.

“It is also very strange to criminal jurisprudence that when investigation has been transferred to State Crime Branch vide order dated December 10, 2021, and investigation file sent to State Crime Branch, Rohtak, on December 30, 2021, the recovered mobiles, including the mobile of deceased Pardeep, were sent on February 14, 2022, to the CFSL, Panchkula, to retrieve the data after the filing of the present application on February 4, 2022. Certainly, this act of the investigating agency creates suspicion on its working,” the order reads.

The order further maintains that in the present case of murder of four people, no scientific investigation has been done regarding the mobile phones of the deceased, accused and complainant qua CDRs/CAF/tower location and other data.

The court has directed the investigating officer to place on record the details of the correspondence made to the nodal officers concerned, along with the copy of all correspondence.The investigating officer has also been told to preserve the call detail records of the deceased, complainant, accused as well as the investigating officers, and procure the CCTV footage concerning the case.