Agencies
GUWAHATI, OCTOBER 7
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]OSHNIWAL, a junior doctor and first-year PG student of Assam Medical College, Dibrugarh, who was brutally murdered on May 9, on Tuesday sought a fast-track trial of the case after crying foul over investigations carried out by the Assam Police CID.
Sarita was murdered in cold blood early morning on May 9 in the intensive care unit of the gynae department of Assam Medical College while she was on night duty. While a ward boy called Kiru Mech was arrested within a few hours, the police on May 15 arrested Dipmoni Saikia, a final-year PG student of the same department on the basis of the ward-boy’s revelations.
But even as the CID was entrusted with the investigations, Saikia, the prime accused, was granted bail by the Gauhati High Court on August 11 after the CID failed to submit its charge-sheet within the stipulated 90-day period. Dipmoni Saikia was arrested under Sections 302, 34 and 120(B) of the IPC. “We no longer have any trust on the CID. Instead we want a judicial investigation into the working of the Assam Police CID as well as the state forensic science laboratory, and request the state government to hand over the trial to a fast-track,” Sarita’s brother Sushil Toshniwal said at a press conference here today. They also sought the media’s help to exert pressure in order to expedite the investigations.
Sarita’s family also alleged that there was deliberate delay on the part of the state forensic science laboratory in submitting its report to the police so that it prevented submission of the charge-sheet within the stipulated 90-day period. “How could the SFSL delay when it very well knows that the investigating officer of the police has to submit the charge-sheet within a stipulated time-frame? We suspect some foul play,” Sarita’s brother Sushil Toshniwal complained.
The victim’s family was also waiting for the SFSL’s reply to an RTI application that they had filed in order to find for themselves what exactly had caused the delay in submission of the forensic report. “We have several questions and have been waiting for the reply to our RTI application,” Sushil Toshniwal said.
