Patna, March 14: The Patna police have hinted towards re-opening closed case files if the respective families question the investigation or the senior police officers find loopholes in the report.

In one such case, City SP Shivdeep Lande has raised serious doubts over DSP (Phulwari) Rakesh Dubey’s report regarding the death of a middle-aged woman who was allegedly burnt by her in-laws for dowry in February last year.

The DSP’s report stated that the case was being closed due to lack of evidence.

Lande told The Telegraph that directions for re-opening the case had been given after the girl’s family approached the police office requesting the same.

Anjana Kumari alias Gudia, a resident of Bajitpur Village under Pipra police station in Patna, was allegedly burnt by her in-laws, including her husband Mukesh Kumar, his father Siya Charan Paswan and mother Manju Devi, on February 2, 2010.

Anjana got married to Mukesh in 2004.

The woman was rushed to a hospital where she finally succumbed to her burn injuries on March 19, 2010.

“On February 5, three days after she was admitted to hospital, Anjana had written in her dying declaration that the burn injuries were a result of an accident. It was written in the letter that the stove had burst while she was cooking. What was strange about the declaration was that the witnesses, essential in a dying declaration, included her husband and in-laws. Such a dying declaration needs to be to have neutral witnesses including a doctor and an executive magistrate. This is the first reason for doubt,” the officer said.

Moreover, the signature of the woman did not match with the same in her academic certificates.

“Her signature is in bigger letters and shaky in the dying declaration and it reads ‘Anjana Devi’ whereas in her educational certificates, her signature is smaller and reads ‘Anjana Kumari’. This is another reason to doubt the declaration,” the officer added.

The FIR in this case was lodged at the Phulwari police station on April 14, 2010.

According to the supervi-sion report of the DSP (Phulwari), before the FIR was lodged, the panchayat of the village made the two families sit face-to-face and it was de-cided that the in-laws will pay Rs 1.5 lakh to Anjana’s family to take care of her two children. “No case can be decided like this. Dowry death is a crime and there are laws to punish the guilty,” the city SP said.

“When Anjan’s family approached police again, a direction for re-opening the case was issued,” the officer added.