Mumbai: The Bombay high court recently transferred to CBI a probe into a 2010 accidental death case of a 13-year-old schoolgirl, saying police did not consider the post-mortem examination report that said that in the last 24 hours before her death, she was subjected to sexual intercourse. Police relied on an incomplete video recording and statement of the doctors who had not seen the post-mortem examination, the HC said.The school had taken students for a camp near Tungareshwar forest at Navghar. It was raining when the students were playing in a stream, and a teacher asked them to come out of the stream as the flow got stronger. All students, except the girl, got out. She was carried away, said the prosecution, and later her body was found unclothed. The HC “too many loose ends” in the case, and said the police “did not even consider the serious possibility of the offence being rape with murder”.“No investigation was carried out from that angle at all. Not finding the clothes on the dead body was also an important aspect which needed to be investigated seriously,” said a division bench of Justices Sarang Kotwal and Sandesh Patil, in its February 10 order. “Very significantly, there was a clear opinion expressed that, prior to and within 24 hours, she was subjected to sexual intercourse. This particular opinion was very important, which unfortunately was not given sufficient importance by any of the investigating officers. Instead, they relied on the statement of the doctors who had not seen the post-mortem examination.”The girl’s father had filed a petition in 2014, seeking transfer of the probe from the Crime Investigation Department (CID) to CBI.HC said it was “quite obvious that a long period went by and it would be very difficult to get the evidence”, but added that there were “certain circumstances which require serious consideration” for the probe transfer plea argued by advocates Yogesh Rawool, Hrishikesh Mundargi and Pravada Raut.Earlier, since 2023, following an order passed by HC, a special investigation team (SIT) of CID officers probed the case.Acting chief public prosecutor M M Deshmukh said no transfer was necessary as the case was investigated seriously and sincerely by three different teams who found it to be a “clear case of accidental death”, not sexual assault, and that the clothes could have come off due to the water flow.The HC noted that, while the post-mortem examination was on, the young photographer, on his first such assignment, felt sick and left midway.The HC also noted that police went to a team from Sir JJ Group of Hospitals for the post-mortem examination report, and one of the team members accepted that his opinion was based on the autopsy video. “Thus, it is quite clear that the very premise of the investigating agency to conclude that it was not a case of sexual assault was based on an incomplete videorecording of the post-mortem examination seen by the team of doctors of Sir JJ Group of Hospitals,” it added, noting the opinion of three doctors who actually did the post-mortem examination was “completely ignored”.
