Mumbai, March 3 () The Bombay High Court has ordered the Navi Mumbai police to probe the death of a minor victim of sexual abuse who was knocked down by a truck under mysterious circumstances in September last year.
A division bench of Justices A.S. Gadkari and P.D. Naik has directed the Uran police to conduct a time-bound probe within two weeks and posted the matter for further hearing on March 9.
The prime accused in the sexual abuse case booked under the POCSO Act in January 2020 is local social worker Abdul R. Anjariya, who was a former office-bearer of the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA), and is on the run since 2020.
The case was filed by the minor victim’s brother, Noor Aalam alias Matiuddin Khan against Anjariya.
The judges directed the Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), Navi Mumbai, to probe the matter registered with the Uran police in context with Khan’s allegations regarding the motive of the crime, and also the role of the case’s Investigating Officer.
Coming down heavily on the IO who had filed a closure report in the case, the judges said its “not only astonishing but flabbergasting” as the IO, without understanding the gravity of the matter and reading the contents of the present petition, has surreptitiously filed the Summary Report on February 17, 2023″.
The judges also said “the deplorable practice adopted by the IO is thereby deprecated”.
The boy, who was killed in a road accident on September 28, 2022 in Uran, was allegedly sexually abused several times during 2019-2020 by Anjariya, a resident of Vikhroli in northeast Mumbai.
After the POCSO case was registered by the Saki Naka Police Station, the Bombay High Court and the Supreme Court had rejected the anticipatory bail application of the accused, and he remains untraceable.
Khan contended through his lawyers Ghanshyam Upadhyay and Manoj Singh, that the circumstances behind his younger brother’s death in the road accident were suspicious, and pointed fingers at the missing accused.
Among other things, he said that the vehicle’s number plate was blurred and not visible, the driver was never caught, and alleged that his brother was eliminated at the behest of the accused-absconder Anjariya.
qn/vd