The Delhi High Court has delivered a scathing indictment of the Delhi Police's investigation into the 2017 death of a young hotel manager, ordering the case to be transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Justice Tushar Rao Gedela, presiding over the matter, directed the premier agency to undertake a fresh and expedited probe into the mysterious circumstances surrounding the demise of 23-year-old Arnav Duggal.
A Mother's Quest for Justice
The court's order on November 27 came in response to a petition filed by Arnav Duggal's mother. Her son was found dead in his Delhi apartment in June 2017. The petitioner vehemently contested the police's theory of suicide, arguing that the investigation was fundamentally flawed from its inception.
Senior advocate Siddharth Aggarwal, representing the mother, submitted that the authorities had operated on an assumption of suicide without gathering credible evidence to support it. He highlighted critical discrepancies, including inconsistencies in the account of the woman who was allegedly in a relationship with Duggal and was present in the flat at the time, the timeline of discovering the body, and issues with the crime scene photographs.
Court's Harsh Critique of Police Investigation
Justice Gedela's ruling was unequivocal in its criticism. The court stated that the police probe "lacks bona fide and appears to have been conducted myopically," focusing solely on the suicide theory presented by the woman without applying proper investigative or analytical rigour.
Labeling the investigation as "lackadaisical," the bench observed that it was the bounden duty of the agencies to first rule out other possible offences. "In the present case, even if one may presume that an offence under Section 302 IPC (murder), in all probability, may not find a foundation but whether the purported suicide is voluntary or there could be an element of abetment, has not at all been looked into by the prosecution. Rather, that aspect was completely ignored, willfully or otherwise," the court noted.
Key Directives for the CBI Probe
The High Court issued a series of specific directives to ensure a comprehensive reinvestigation:
The CBI is ordered to take up a fresh investigation into the circumstances of Arnav Duggal's death and proceed with necessary legal steps.
All police authorities have been directed to hand over the entire case records and evidence gathered so far to the CBI within four weeks from the date of the order.
In a significant move, the CBI has also been tasked with conducting an enquiry into the lapses by the Delhi Police officers involved in the initial probe. If any deliberate acts of omission or commission are found, a report must be submitted to the petitioner and the Police Commissioner for potential disciplinary action.
The court mandated that the CBI complete its investigations with expedition and that all other agencies extend full cooperation.
The government counsel, Anmol Sinha, had opposed the petition, arguing that the mother's version was imaginative and lacked evidential merit. However, the court found sufficient grounds to warrant a transfer to the CBI, emphasizing the need for a fair and thorough investigation to uncover the truth behind the tragic death that has remained unresolved for over eight years.
