Months after the Coimbatore district court closed the controversial case of DSP Vishnupriya’s death, the same court, on Thursday, ordered the CBI to continue the probe. The case was closed in May after the CBI had submitted a report stating that there were no evidence of murder or foul play in the 27-year-old police officer’s death.
Chief Judicial Magistrate of the Coimbatore district court, Justice S Nagarajan, issued the order after Vishnupriya’s father filed a petition in the court citing issues with the CBI report submitted in April. Speaking to TNM, Ravikumar, Vishnupriya’s father said, “There were many contradictions in the report submitted in April by the CBI. We pointed them out to the court and requested the court to order for the probe to continue.” Adding that he hopes to get justice for his daughter’s death, he said, “We wanted the court to record the statements of all the police officers named in the report and not leave it in the hands of the CBI alone.”
Based on the petition, the court ordered the CBI to continue investigation in the case and submit a report within six months.
Contradictions in witnesses' statement, says Ravikumar’s advocate
Advocate Arulmozhi, the counsel representing DSP Vishnupriya’s father in the case told TNM that the reason they approached the court was the CBI report. “There were different versions of the statements given by the witnesses in the case. The statements given by the seven police officers who were questioned by the CBI as a part of the investigation were different,” he said.
The CBI had questioned constable Muthu Kumar, DSP Raju, DSP Radhakrishnan, DSP Mageswari, Inspectors Chandrakala and Inigo Thiviyan and Additional SP Xavier Francis who were Vishnupriya’s colleagues.
Cause of death not stated in the CBI report
“We had also submitted to the court that the investigation itself was not concluded properly. The cause of death mentioned in the report presented to the court was ‘personal reasons’,” said Advocate Arulmozhi. He also added that this cannot be accepted since the main reason for transferring the case to CBI was in fact to investigate and find out the real reason for her death. “This ‘personal reason’ can be said by a layperson and not the CBI. There must be concrete cause of death stated in the report,” he added.
Advocate Arulmozhi also told TNM that the report mentions the existence of an audio recording of a phone conversation between DSP Vishnupriya and SP Senthil Kumar and nothing more. “A CBI report must mention details of the conversation. Just stating that the audio is present and not disclosing the details cannot be accepted,” he added.
Based on the above issues, Ravikumar had requested the court to question the seven police officers, himself and his wife under section 164 of the CrPC (Recording of confessions and statements by the judicial or metropolitan magistrate). The petitioner had also requested the court to direct the CBI to investigate and find out the real reason for her death.
Background
Tiruchengode Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Vishnupriya was found hanging at her house in Namakkal on September 18, 2015. She was investigating an alleged caste killing case involving a Dalit youth Gokulraj, who was found dead on the railway track in June 2015. The case was sensitive since Gokulraj was allegedly kidnapped and killed for being friends with a woman from the dominant Gounder community. Two men – Sankar and Kumar – confessed to having committed the crime before a court in Srivilliputtur in July. They informed the court that they killed Gokulraj by strangling him with a cloth with the help of Yuvaraj and three others.
Vishnupriya had allegedly left a note behind in which she wrote that the job she was doing had its own pressure and that she was investigating a sensitive case but then that was not the reason for her death. Adding that she loved her job, Vishnupriya had allegedly mentioned that a mistake that she made was making her feel guilty and that feeling was troubling her. She also implored her parents to not create problems and to not make her death political or sensational.
Almost a month after Vishnupriya’s death, S Yuvaraj surrendered himself before the CB-CID in Namakkal after 100 days of hiding. According to the police, Yuvaraj was hiding in different locations including Salem, Gulbarga in Karnataka, Puttaparthi in Andhra Pradesh and Payyanur in Kerala during the time he was absconding.
However, the opposition parties demanded a CBI probe into her death and her parents alleged that harassment from her superiors drove her to kill herself. Though the CB-CID was tasked with investigating the case initially, it was transferred to the CBI by the Madras HC in July 2016 after her father moved the court demanding a free and fair probe.