Patna: Taking notice of a botched up murder investigation conducted by Begusarai police, the Patna high court on Thursday ordered for reinvestigation of a school warden’s suspicious death after her body was found on school premises with a noose around her neck.The court ordered for a fresh probe by an investigation team to be constituted by the IG Vikas Vaibhav.A single bench of Justice Sandeep Kumar, while allowing a criminal writ application of one Tejawini Kumari, delivered this judgment which also came in public domain through HC websites on Thursday.Tejaswini’s counsels—Akash Keshav and Akansha Malviya—submitted to the court that on April 4, 2021 their client’s mother Rinku Kumari had left for Kasturba Gandhi Balika Avasiya Vidyalaya situated at Muzaffara in Begusarai district where she was working as warden.Rinku was supposed to receive Rs15 lakh back from her neighbours who had taken said amount in lieu of transferring a piece of land—a promise which was not fulfilled by them. On the same day, Tejaswini’s mother was found dead on school premises.Despite naming those neighbours as accused of murdering Rinku, the SHO refused to book them and lodged an FIR and gave it a colour of suicide.Justice Kumar found serious lapses in the probe of local police who had ignored postmortem report, call detail records (CDR) of Rinku with the accused and money dispute continuing between the two. Citing Supreme Court rulings, Justice Kumar in his 40-page verdict said, “Fair investigation is a vital component of fundamental right of a person for fair trial as guaranteed by the Constitution which cannot get denuded away with lapse of time and progress of lower court’s proceedings.”
