A division bench headed by Chief Justice M Karpagavinaygam and Justice Pramod Kohli ordered the inquiry.
RANCHI: The Jharkhand High Court Tuesday ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the mysterious drowning of engineering student Abhishek Mishra, a friend of Railway Minister Lalu Prasad's daughter Ragini.
A division bench headed by Chief Justice M Karpagavinaygam and Justice Pramod Kohli ordered the inquiry.
"We are satisfied with the High Court judgment, which hands over the inquiry to the CBI," said Manoj Mishra, a cousin of Abhishek. The court had reserved judgment in the case Feb 1 after hearing both the state and amicus curie Rajiv Ranjan appointed by the court.
Abhishek, a Birla Institute of Technology (BIT) student, apparently drowned at the Dasam falls near here on Dec 8 when he had gone for a picnic with three friends - Bharat Anand, Vishal Pandey and Ragini Yadav.
The only complaint in the incident was filed by Pandey at the Bundu station near the falls.
According to Abhishek's father S.C. Mishra, a doctor at Delhi's Ram Manohar Lohia hospital, it was Ragini who called him to inform him that Abhishek had drowned in the falls. She flew to Patna the day after the incident.
Bharat Anand, nephew of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator Rabindra Rai, disappeared for two days after the incident.
The CBI will now investigate whether Abhishek was murdered or died a natural death due to drowning. Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda had earlier refused to involve the CBI and his move was seen with some amount of suspicion.
S.C Mishra, who has maintained that Abhishek's death was unnatural, had sent a letter to the Jharkhand High Court seeking a CBI inquiry. The court had converted the letter into a writ petition, sought a probe by the state government and appointed an amicus curie.
The amicus curie had raised questions over the state police inquiry and the post-mortem report. The autopsy had revealed that there was no water in Abhishek's lungs and that blood found in his heart. It was pointed out that in cases of drowning the lungs normally fill up with water.
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