SIT chief to High Court: No need for re-investigation

Bengaluru: Soumendu Mukherjee, a senior IPS officer, who was investigating the Karnataka Sex CD scandal, has informed the high court that re-investigation into the case was not required.

The matter was taken up by the Division Bench headed by Chief Justice A.S.Oka looking into the petition seeking transfer of the Sex CD case to the CBI and monitoring of investigation by the High Court was told about this on Thursday.

The court had objected to the submission of an investigation report in the absence of an investigation officer. The bench again noted that senior officers are appointed for investigation by considering their seniority and experience. "If a senior goes on leave, how is it possible to conduct proper investigation," the court observed.

However, Advocate General (AG) Prabhulinga Navadagi appearing for the government informed the court that the investigation carried out in the absence of an investigation officer of Special Investigation Team (SIT) will not be improper.

The high court considering the argument stated that, though the AG stated there will not be any shortcomings in the investigation carried out even in the absence of the investigation officer, the petition questioned the formation of SIT and it has to be ascertained whether proper investigation had taken place. There is a need to look into all these matters, the bench noted.

The investigations took place in the absence of SIT chief looking into Sex CD case for three months. Soumendu Mukherjee did not hand over the investigation, he only transferred the task of submission of report to the court. Mukkherjee must have verified the investigation report before submission, the bench observed.

The court had also asked Mukherjee to get back to the court on submission of an affidavit after verifying the final report of the case. However, Mukherjee informed the court through his counsel that re-investigation of the case was not required. The court adjourned the matter to September 3 and directed the SIT not to submit the final report just yet.