The Alipore court has rejected a plea from Kushal Agarwal, arrested in connection with the death of his wife Rashika Jain, to direct the team that is probing the death to investigate a case lodged by the Agarwals against the woman’s family.
The court turned down the appeal saying the special investigation team has already submitted a chargesheet in the Rashika case and the matter could not be clubbed with the complaint lodged by the Agarwals with Kalighat police station.
Rashika died in February 2021 after falling from a height at her in-laws’ Alipore residence in southwest Kolkata.
The chargesheet submitted on August 10 named Rashika’s husband and in-laws as accused.
Rashika’s parents had been alleging delay and a partisan role of the police in handling the case.
Acting on a petition filed by Rashika’s family, Calcutta High Court ordered the formation of a special investigation team headed by the special commissioner of Kolkata police, Damayanti Sen, in June 2022.
Less than a month after the SIT took over the probe, the police arrested Kushal Agarwal. He has been in remand since.
Kushal’s parents — Naresh and Neelam Agarwal — have been mentioned as “not arrested” in the chargesheet. In July 2021, Kushal’s family lodged a complaint of extortion, criminal breach of trust, criminal intimidation, dishonest misappropriation of property possessed by the deceased at the time of death and criminal conspiracy against the Jains.
The Agarwals alleged that Rashika’s parents had accessed her bank locker and removed her valuables after her death. Based on the allegations from the Agarwal family, officers of Kalighat police station submitted a report in February this year.
Kushal had moved the court on August 12 with the request that the SIT be asked to investigate the complaint by his family.
The court, however, turned down the plea.
Rashika’s father Mahendra Jain told The Telegraph: “It was a joint locker whose keys were kept in my office because we kept official documents in that locker. What is wrong if the locker was operated by a joint holder?” “Prayer for a direction upon the same SIT to investigate both cases cannot be allowed as the investigation of the Alipore police station case (related to Rashika’s death) is complete,” the court had said.
On Monday, Kushal’s judicial remand was extended till September 5.
