MANJUSHA K. Vs. CENTRAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

JUDGEMENT

(1.) "Nothing matters but the facts. Without them, the science of criminal investigation is nothing more than a guessing game"said the renowned filmmaker, Blake Edwards. These words, in our view, serve as the perfect prelude to this judgment.

(2.) The scrutiny that we are called upon to undertake in this case relates to the factual justification for the appellant in approaching this Court for transferring the investigation in the case registered in connection with the death of her husband, from the State Police to the Central Bureau of Investigation.

(3.) The husband of the appellant, the former Additional District Magistrate, Kannur, was found dead by hanging in his official quarters on 15/10/2024. The Kannur Town Police registered a crime within few hours under Sec. 194 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS). In the course of the investigation, it was revealed that the deceased faced public humiliation at the hands of one P.P.Divya, the then President of the Kannur District Panchayat, who in her speech, during the farewell function of the deceased on the previous evening, accused the deceased of corruption in connection with the issuance of a No Objection Certificate (NOC) for opening a fuel outlet. She threatened to expose him within two days and recorded the visuals of that function to propagate the same through social media with an intent to publicly humiliate him, and left the function before the memento was handed over to the deceased. Alleging that the aforesaid acts of P.P. Divya forced the deceased to commit suicide, she was arrayed as the accused in the case by substituting Sec. 194 of BNSS with Sec. 108 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (BNS), and the investigation was being continued on that basis. While so, on 25/10/2024, having regard to the nature of the case, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by Sri.Ajit Kumar, IPS, District Police Chief was constituted by the concerned Inspector General of Police, and the investigation in the case is being continued thereafter by the SIT.