Law student's death in 2017: SC reserves order on plea seeking CBI probe

The Supreme Court on Tuesday reserved its order on a plea seeking transfer of investigation from state police to CBI into the mysterious death of a third-year student at National Law University, Jodhpur, in August 2017.

A bench comprising R.F. Nariman, Navin Sinha and Indira Banerjee were hearing a plea moved by the victim's mother who insisted that there was reasonable suspicion in the death of her son, and she was not satisfied with the probe so far. The petitioner had said she has been left dismayed and devastated after the death of her only child.

In July, the apex court had directed the Rajasthan police to complete the probe, within two months. A plea was filed by advocate Sunil Fernandes on behalf of Neetu Kumar Nagaich, mother of 21-year-old victim Vikrant Nagaich. The mother had moved the apex court seeking transfer of the investigations to the CBI.

This was after on June 8, the bench had noted that it will hear the matter within two weeks, and also look at the status of the probe conducted so far.


"Despite the lapse of almost three years, no charge-sheet has been filed. The investigation is at a stand-still, with no effort made to apprehend the offenders," said the plea.

The petitioner claimed that the case was registered after a delay of around 10 months, in June 2018. The petitioner had urged the top court to issue a direction to the CBI to take all steps to "solve the mystery of the unnatural death".

The plea claimed that there were many gaps in the probe and apprehended that it is a result of a "probable collusion to shield some high, mighty and influential person(s)".


According to the plea, the victim on August 13, 2017, went to a restaurant, which was nearly 300 meters from the university campus, with his friends in the evening, but he did not show up, instead his body was found next morning near the railway track.

The plea argued that the police are yet to retrieve the victim's mobile phone data with the help of Google, WhatsApp or Facebook, to find out his whereabouts on the night of the incident.- IANS