SC Pulls Up Rajasthan Govt Over Death of NLU Student, Sets 2-month Deadline to Finish Probe

The Supreme Court on Wednesday pulled up the Rajasthan government for dragging the investigations into death of a third-year student of National Law University, Jodhpur, in August 2017.

A bench headed by Justice Rohinton F Nariman gave two months to the state government to conclude its probe.

"The investigations must be completed in two months and the final report will be submitted in this court," said the bench, which also included Justices Navin Sinha and BR Gavai.

The top court remained unimpressed with the pace of the probe and questioned its sluggishness after going through the status report submitted by the Rajasthan police.

"When are you going to complete it? It is going on and on and on… There has to be some end to it," the bench told senior advocate Manish Singhvi.

Singhvi, on his part, tried to convince the bench that all that is possible is being done to complete the probe. He submitted that after the CB-CID, now a special investigation team has been looking into various aspects of it.

"The deceased's phone was completely destroyed. We have now written to Google and Facebook for some information but they have not replied. This is something not in our control," Singhvi added.

But the bench made it clear that the Rajasthan police cannot simply go on with the investigation without concluding it.

Accepting advocate Astha Sharma's submissions, the bench decided to put a clock to the probe, asking the state to complete the investigations in two months and report back.

Parents of victim Vikrant Nagaich, who have petitioned the Supreme Court, also attended the hearing through the video-conferencing.

In their petition, parents have underscored the local police have failed to carry out the probe in the right earnest and sought a direction to the CBI to take all steps to "solve the mystery of the unnatural death" of their 21-year-old son.

While claiming that an FIR was lodged in the case after a delay of around 10 months, in June 2018, the plea has alleged that the manner in which probe has been conducted “leads to an inescapable reasonable apprehension” that it is a result of a "probable collusion to shield some high, mighty and influential persons".

“Despite 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 court, on the last hearing in June, had asked for a status report from the Rajasthan police.