The Jharkhand High Court has intervened in a harrowing case involving the recovery of a skeleton in Bokaro, suspected to be that of an 18-year-old girl missing for eight months. On Thursday, a division bench comprising Justices Sujit Narayan Prasad and Sanjay Prasad directed the police to immediately send samples of the remains to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) in Kolkata for DNA profiling.
The court’s intervention comes following a petition filed by Rekha Devi, the mother of the missing teenager. The case, which has seen significant police lapses, led to the court ordering the CFSL to furnish a report matching the DNA of the recovered remains with Rekha Devi and her spouse within a strict two-week deadline.
The victim, a graduation aspirant, went missing on July 24 last year after leaving for Chas College in the Pindrajora police station area for admission. Her mother subsequently lodged a kidnapping complaint. For eight months, the trail remained cold until a recent breakthrough led to the arrest of a man with whom the victim allegedly had an affair.
According to police claims, the suspect murdered the woman after she pressured him to marry her. On April 12, acting on the suspect’s information, investigators recovered a skeleton, 19 bone fragments, strands of hair, clothing, and the alleged murder weapon.
Beyond the DNA testing in Kolkata, the High Court ordered that the postmortem examination of the recovered skeleton be conducted at the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) in Ranchi. The court was informed that DNA samples from the parents have already been collected to facilitate the matching process.
During the hearing, high-ranking officials including the Director General of Police (DGP) and the Bokaro Superintendent of Police (SP) appeared before the bench. The Special Investigating Team (SIT) currently probing the murder also produced relevant investigative documents.
The proceedings took a sharp turn regarding police accountability. Advocate General Rajiv Ranjan informed the bench that 28 police personnel from the Pindrajora police station have been suspended by the Bokaro SP for negligence.
However, the court expressed dissatisfaction with the scope of these disciplinary actions. In an oral observation, the bench remarked that the suspension of lower-level personnel was insufficient. The court observed that senior officers, including those of DSP, SP, and DIG rank who were in charge of the case, should also face suspension for the investigative failures that allowed the case to languish for months.
The court has directed the DGP, Bokaro SP, and SIT members to appear again in a fortnight, once the CFSL report is received.
