Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) today submitted a report in a sealed cover to the Bombay High Court on its probe into the alleged custodial death of a 24-year-old youth who was arrested by Wadala Railway police in a theft case.
Taking the report on record, a bench of Justices V M Kanade and P D Kode observed that the agency had procured a hard disc of the CCTV footage which can possibly throw light on the incident. Earlier, the state had told the court that the CCTV footage had been destroyed as it automatically gets deleted over a period of time.
The bench asked CBI to go ahead with the probe and submit a fresh report after four weeks. On June 17, the court had ordered CBI to probe the death of the youth Agnelo Valdaris, observing that apparently an attempt had been made to "fabricate" evidence.
"We find that an attempt has been made by police to fabricate the evidence... Your investigation does not inspire confidence," the Judges had observed while transferring the probe to CBI.
Agnelo and his three friends were arrested by Wadala railway police for stealing a gold chain and a ring in April. Police claimed that he attempted to run away and was run over by a local train on April 18 while crossing the tracks.
However, his father moved the HC, alleging his son died in police custody due to the beatings and sought a CBI probe.
The judges had said earlier that the state government had shielded the accused as they were policemen. The investigators did not take the help of cyber cell of state police to obtain CCTV footage to verify the claim that Agnelo was run over by a train, the court had observed.
The state government's contention in HC was that CCTV footage is automatically deleted after a fortnight.
However, the judges had questioned why no attempt was made to procure the footage immediately, particularly when the father of the deceased had made this request to the police.
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