The Supreme Court on Thursday sharply criticized the Madhya Pradesh government for its inaction in the case of a 24-year-old man’s alleged custodial death and ordered that the investigation be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
A bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta directed the CBI’s jurisdictional Superintendent of Police to immediately register a case and conduct a “fair, transparent and expeditious” investigation into the death of Deva Pardhi. The court instructed that the police officers responsible be arrested within a month and the investigation concluded within 90 days from the date of arrest.
The order came while hearing a plea filed by Deva Pardhi’s mother and aunt, challenging the Madhya Pradesh High Court’s refusal to transfer the probe and to grant bail to Gangaram Pardhi, Deva’s uncle and the sole eye-witness to the alleged custodial torture.
According to the petition, Deva and his uncle were arrested in a theft case and subsequently subjected to police brutality. Deva allegedly died due to custodial torture, though police claimed he succumbed to a heart attack. Gangaram remains in judicial custody and has expressed serious fears for his life, citing threats from police and prison officials.
The court took strong exception to the Madhya Pradesh government’s handling of the matter. Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, representing the state, informed the court that two officers had merely been transferred to police lines. The bench observed that, despite an FIR being registered, no arrests had been made, and the family had initially been prevented from filing the complaint.
The court was also critical of the post-mortem report. “Despite multiple injuries on Deva’s body, the medical board failed to state the cause of death. This omission appears to be deliberate and influenced by the local police,” the bench remarked, adding that even the doctors seemed to have been pressured.
Citing the legal maxim nemo judex in causa sua—no one should be a judge in their own cause—the court said the allegations against the Myana police station could not be properly investigated by the same department. The magisterial inquiry and Gangaram’s statement further corroborated the custodial death claim, it noted.
The Supreme Court concluded that nearly eight months had passed since the FIR was filed and no real progress had been made, suggesting “an imminent possibility of the prosecution being subjugated by the accused.”
Terming it a “classic case” where state police camaraderie obstructed justice, the court transferred the entire probe to the CBI with immediate effect.
