The Bombay High Court on Tuesday directed the senior police inspector of Kurla Railway Police station to file an affidavit with regards to Esther Anuhya case. Thehigh court has asked the officer to mention the steps taken by thepolice soon after an oral complaint of missing Esther was lodged with them by her uncle on January 5. Thebody of the deceased Hyderabad techie was recovered in a decomposed condition from Bhandup on January 16.
Adivision bench of Justice NH Patil and Justice Anuja Prabhudesai directed the police to file their reply within two weeks and adjourned the hearing on the petition filed by activist-lawyer AbhaSingh. Singh,who argued her petition in-person, stated before the court that "forfour days, the police had not carried out any preliminary investigation; instead, they kept on diverting the father of the deceased to lodge a missing complaint with Vijaywada police in Andhra Pradesh from where Esther had boarded a train to come to Mumbai." Shefurther argued that the police were duty bound under provision 113(13) of the Bombay Police Act to register a missing complaint andtake appropriate steps but they failed to do so. For this, actionneeds to be initiated against them, she argued.
The petition prayed that directions be given to the railways to ensurethat proper maintenance of the CCTV cameras be done at railway stations. However, public prosecutor SK Shinde argued that "nodoubt the complaint by the police was not recorded, but the Kurla police had scanned the CCTv footage, checked with railways about any passenger on the train having met with an accident. It is not that the complainant was not given any assistance but some steps were taken." He also argued that Singh did not have any locus standi tofile the petition as she was in no way connected to the case. However, the court, dismissing the arguments of maintainability, admitted the petition and directed the police to file its reply.
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