Custodial death: Bombay high court raps CBI for delay

The Bombay high court on Thursday pulled up the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for the delay in investigating an alleged case of custodial death.

Hearing a petition filed by Mehrunissa Shaikh, mother of Altaf Shaikh, 22, who died while in custody, the court directed the CBI to complete the probe by July 31. “Progress in the investigations is not up to the mark…,” remarked a division bench of justices BH Marlapalle and Anoop Mohta. The CBI has been directed to submit a progress report on July 1.

The court was not happy about the agency justifying the delay saying that the documents were being translated from Marathi to English, and that it has other cases to handle.

“Despite an order in October 2009, no progress report has been filed,” remarked justice Marlapalle. The court had, on October 16 last year, directed the CBI to lodge an offence against the police officers concerned who had conducted the inquest panchnama in Altaf’s case.

Altaf was picked up on September 11 and dragged to the police station. Later that evening, police informed Mehrunisa that Altaf had been taken to Rajawadi Hospital as he was ill. But when Mehrunisa reached there, she found her son dead.