The Supreme Court on Saturday directed the Madhya Pradesh government to form a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe into the case of the petitioner's missing son.
A bench of justice Ajay Rastogi and CT Ravikumar in a recently delivered order has directed the Madhya Pradesh government to form an SIT.
"We direct the State Government to form an SIT and further investigation be handed over to the SIT in compliance of the order of this Court and status report now be submitted to this Court by the SIT formed by the State Government to be headed by an Inspector General of Police," the court said.
"As to the complaint of which the cognizance has been taken by this Court the petitioner's son is missing almost for 17 years and we do not appreciate the manner in which the investigation is being conducted by the respondent authorities," it said.
"The last status report which has been placed for perusal is also of paper compliance indicating that search warrants have been issued in neighbouring villages but nothing has come forward," the top court added.
It further said: "Obviously, nothing will come forward for the reason that this minor son is not traceable for more than 17 years. The question of his availability in nearby villages does not ordinarily arise."
The petitioner Attu had approached the apex court with the complaint stating that his minor son was not traceable and there was a time when he (his son) was named an accused in the FIR dated January 18, 2005, registered for the offence under sections 354, 506, 294 of the IPC.
The petitioner had also filed a Habeas Corpus Petition before the Madhya Pradesh High Court, which was dismissed in May 2020, after which he challenged the High Court order in the Supreme Court.
"After the Court issued the notice, the State Government on each date of hearing is filing the status report but we feel that there is a paper compliance and nothing positive is coming forward," the court noted.
( With inputs from ANI )
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor