SC notice to Rajasthan govt on plea for CBI probe into NLU student's death

The Supreme Court on Monday sought a response from the Rajasthan government on a plea to transfer probe into the suspicious death of National Law University, Jodhpur student Vikrant Nagaich in 2017, to the CBI.

A bench of Justices R F Nariman, Navin Sinha, and B R Gavai asked the state government to explain why they failed to achieve a headway into the matter for over three years.

Advocates Sunil Fernandes and Astha Sharma, representing Neetu Kumar Nagaich, the mother of the deceased, accused the state police of "lackadaisical and callous manner of the probe" into the FIR lodged on June 29, 2018, with Jodhpur's Mandore police station.

The petitioner said the state was criminally negligent in the investigation or was trying to cover up for the perpetrators or had some mala fide intention to the detriment of her who lost her only son three years ago.

Vikrant, a third-year law student, was found dead on August 14, 2017, under unnatural circumstances near Railway track opposite the university. The authorities first tried to present the case as that of suicide due to alleged depression, though there was no such evidence.

After about 10 months of the incident, the FIR was lodged but the CID-CB failed to arrive at any outcome. Petitioner's husband, Colonel Jayant Nagaich procured an Internal Railway Enquiry Report, which showed no record of any incident or accident by any member of lobby crew, locomotive drivers, or guards of the trains on the date.

The petitioner also approached the Rajasthan HC which on February 24, 2020, disposed of the matter, though the investigating agency amongst other things failed to create a digital footprint, including retrieval of mobile records, of the circumstances surrounding the place of the incident, which would have led to the apprehension of the offenders.