Supreme Court asks Punjab DGP to constitute SIT for probing woman’s death

The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Punjab DGP to constitute a special investigation team to probe a woman’s alleged murder by her husband and her lover.

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A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh was hearing a plea of the victim’s father against the bail granted to her husband in the case.

The bench ordered the DGP to constitute a three-member SIT comprising two IPS officers and one woman officer.

The top court underlined the need for the SIT to probe despite the “unnatural death” of the woman as there was no breakthrough in the investigation even after five years of the incident and the case was transferred to the crime branch after a chargesheet was filed.

Advocates Vishwajit Singh and Veera Kaul Singh, appearing for the father, argued the high court had erred in granting bail to the husband.

The top court ordered the SIT to conclude the investigation in three months and disposed of the matter.

On August 9, 2021, the Punjab and Haryana High Court granted bail to the husband saying the court had to strike a balance between the freedom of an individual guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution and the factors such as possibility of influencing any witness or tampering with evidence or fleeing from justice or the seriousness of the offence, etc.

The woman, who hailed from Noida, married the accused husband in 2011 and gave birth in 2014. Her mortal remains were found in a car in Amritsar, where the couple lived, bearing multiple injury marks, also indicating strangulation.

Her father, who is the complainant in the case, alleged she was killed by her husband, her lover along with his relative.

The Punjab Police informed the high court that it had conducted the investigation against multiple persons but they had been exonerated and after the investigation, a chargesheet was filed against the husband only on June 10, 2020.

Subsequently, the mother of the husband filed a plea following which the director, Bureau of Investigation, Punjab, Chandigarh, transferred the investigation to the crime branch for further investigation.

The crime branch concluded the police probe’s was faulty and the husband was not involved in the offence and the role of the other three persons was sought to be further investigated.

The crime branch moved an application in the trial court seeking to re-investigate the case.

An application was also filed for discharging the husband and a separate report was submitted in this regard to the director, Bureau of Investigation, Punjab on February 8, 2021 for approval.