NEW DELHI, February 19 (TNN): The Central Bureau of Investigation has reservations in taking up the investigations of the death of Nido Tania - a 19 year old youth from Arunachal Pradesh - who succumbed to injuries he suffered after being severely beaten up by some shopkeepers in Lajpat Nagar area in South Delhi late last month.
Sources said the CBI may return the file to the Centre as the agency feels that all the suspects have already been arrested by the Delhi Police and there is no mystery left in the death. As far as probing the role of Delhi Police officers is concerned, an agency official said a magisterial probe is already on.
The CBI can refuse investigations referred to it by central or state governments, but it is bound to investigate those cases which have been given to it by courts. The agency officials are likely to study the Nido case before a decision is taken whether it would start a probe. An understaffed CBI doesn’t want to put pressure on its resources with too many non-corruption cases, sources said.
An official said the case doesn’t have any wider conspiracy, inter-state ramifications or mysterious sequence of events. “All facts are known and the Delhi Police has already investigated the same. There is no point in another agency starting over a fresh probe, which would delay the judicial process of filing the chargesheet,” said the official.
Nido, son of a Congress MLA from Arunachal, and a BA first year student in a private university, had an altercation with some shopkeepers at Lajpat Nagar in New Delhi on January 29 after they made fun of his hairstyle. Later, Nido was allegedly thrashed by them.
He was found dead the next day at his residence. Police have already slapped murder charges against four people in this case. Police had informed metropolitan magistrate Pawan Kumar that they had booked the accused - Farman, Sunder, Pawan and Sunny Uppal - under section 302 (murder) of IPC after the post mortem report revealed that Nido died of injuries to his head and face caused by a blunt object.
His death had sparked large scale protests across the national capital and Arunachal Pradesh with protesters describing Nido as a victim of racism. Following the outcry, former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had recommended a magisterial inquiry into the death.
