|
New Delhi, Sept. 7: Supreme Court today slammed the CBI for refusing to trace two children kidnapped from Jharkhand and challenging the high court direction to do so in the apex court.
Justice D.K. Jain gave the agency a mouthful for putting money over precious human lives. “This attitude is astonishing. Even if it’s arising out of a HC order, you will not touch the case while the appeal is pending and the court decides the principle of law,” he said, sitting alongside Justice Madan B. Lokur.
The CBI has been refusing to take up cases citing funds and manpower constraints.
On October 18, 2011, Jharkhand High Court asked the CBI to probe the case of two kidnapped children and also directed the agency to look into rising instances of children going missing in the state.
“Human lives have no meaning for you without any financial gains,” Justice Jain observed. “There are so many instances of kidnapping, so the HC directed you to look into it, yet you don’t do it,” he noted.
“Then you (the CBI) will say that the skeletons have been found and we have sent it for DNA testing. Act like the CBI and don’t say that the state police did not give us this file,” he said angrily.
Justice Jain admitted the CBI’s attitude had upset him, but gave time to the agency’s counsel, A.S.G. Siddharth Luthra, till Monday to get back with a report on the kidnapped children.
Luthra initially tried to pacify the court saying that at least nine persons had been arrested, but gave up in the face of the court’s anger.
The HC order had come on a petition filed by one Susanna Kispotta who sought the court’s intervention to trace his two missing nephews. Kispotta’s lawyer told the court that the police had failed to trace Anup Kispotta, or Annu (4), and Ranjit Kispotta, or Guddu (8), after they were kidnapped on September 28, 2010. He also cited other such instances.
The HC then directed the home secretary and the DGP to inquire whether the investigations were conducted properly or not and recommended action against officials if they were found to be lax in their jobs.
At the same time, the HC ordered the CBI to investigate the case also. “If other cases of similar nature are lingering unsolved, those cases should also be handed over to the CBI,” the HC said.
|
