Bhubaneswar: Sambalpur police last year attracted media attention, although for wrong reasons, after it delayed investigation of a case leading to denial of justice.
The police last year started looking for the remains of a person murdered eight years ago (2011). However, the family members are still in darkness about the status of the police investigation.
Irked by abnormal delay in the case due to police lethargy, the family members have moved Orissa High Court seeking investigation by a competent investigating agency. The court recently admitted the case and may decide whether another investigating agency like the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) or a court-monitored probe should take up the case.
The Sambalpur police have already submitted the chargesheet in the case after investigation.
The family members of the deceased have claimed that evidence relating to the old case is dwindling and the shoddy police probe will deprive them of justice they have been seeking for over a decade.
“We are not satisfied with the probe and we have approached the HC to order another investigating agency to take up the case. Our DNA samples were taken in August last year to match it with the remains of my mother,” said Vijayanee Mishra, daughter of the deceased.
“The remains were first sent to Bhubaneswar and later to Hyderabad for forensic tests but till now we are not informed of the results. If there was no need for chemical analysis why are they not handing over the body parts to us,” she added.
Vijayanee also raised apprehensions about the safety of her brother residing in Sambalpur because the murder accused is still roaming freely. She also suspected the police chargesheet which expunged the conspiracy angle in the case as she believes the crime could not have been executed by a single person.
In this case, the deceased went missing in 2011. Though the police registered the complaint, they did not investigate the matter and simply made a diary entry. Vijayanee and her brother pursued the case for eight years after which the police tried to find the remains of the body in 2018 and located a skull and some bones purportedly belonging to the victim on the basis of interrogation of the accused.
The police detained the main accused who later confessed to the crime in 2011.