MRS. RABIA A. KHAN Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith. With consent, heard finally at the stage of admission itself.

(2.) By this Petition, filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the Petitioner is seeking an appropriate writ, order or direction for formation of the Special Investigation Team for conducting further / fresh investigation in respect of death of her daughter Nafisa Ali Rizvi @ Jiah Khan.

(3.) The grievance of the Petitioner is that the investigation in the present case, as conducted by the Juhu Police Station, Mumbai, proceeded only on the hypothesis that it was a case of suicide. The Police did not consider at all the possibility of murder of her daughter, despite there being several glaring features inviting the possibility of death of her daughter being a case of homicidal one. Hence, being aggrieved by the fact that Police had filed Charge-Sheet against the accused, namely, Sooraj Pancholi, only for the offence punishable under Section 306 of IPC, earlier also she was constrained to file Criminal Writ Petition No.919 of 2014, seeking a direction for further investigation by an independent agency, such as 'Special Investigation Team' or 'Federal Bureau of Investigation, USA', with a specific direction, to re-investigate the matter or to carry out further investigation and to probe into the matter from the point of view of the homicidal death, rather than suicidal death. It is submitted that this Court has, vide its detailed order dated 3rd July 2014 passed in aforesaid Criminal Writ Petition No.919 of 2014, transferred investigation of this case to the 'Central Bureau of Investigation', (for short, "the CBI"), with a specific direction to consider whether this is a case of suicidal or homicidal death. A further direction was also given to the effect that, if CBI comes to the conclusion, on the basis of its own further investigation, that it is a case of homicidal death, then, CBI should make further investigation to find out who is perpetrator of the crime and take action accordingly.