HC directs DGP to produce Amboji Naresh on June 1

​Hyderabad: Taking a serious view of lack of progress by the local police officials, the High Court in Hyderabad, on Thursday, directed the Telangana Director General of Police to entrust investigation into disappearance of Amboji Naresh and the related suicide of Tummala Swati to the Superintendent of Police rank officer.

It wanted the police to trace the boy and produce him before the Court on June 1 and if in case they are unable to do so, the newly appointed investigation officer must submit a report on the investigation.

The vacation division bench, comprising of Justice P. Naveen Rao and Justice M.S.K. Jaiswal, passed this order while dealing with the Habeas Corpus Writ petition moved by Amboji Venkataiah, the father of Amboji Naresh seeking the court’s intervention in securing the safety of his son who had gone missing since May 2 in Bhongir.

Both Swathi and her husband Amboji Naresh had reached Bhongir on that day and Swathi was taken away by her father Tummala Srinivas Reddy while Naresh went missing. As is known, the bench had earlier, during an urgent hearing on May 15, directed the police to produce Swathi before it on May 18.

Within hours of that order, Swati had died and the family members claimed it was a suicide. The bench raised the question as to how the girl, who had attempted suicide once, was left alone by her father resulting in her death.

It also questioned the Special Government Pleader S Sharat Kumar as to why the police were not questioning the father of Swathi regarding the disappearance of her husband Naresh or analysing the call data of the concerned persons.

The Government Pleader told the Court that the investigation is going on effectively. He also said that the dowry case registered against the parents of Naresh was a routine one as it needs to be applied to any married woman if she dies within 7 years of her marriage.

The counsel for the petitioner informed the bench that there are doubts over the death of Swathi, whether it was really a suicide or whether she was silenced to prevent truth coming out. He expressed lack of confidence of the petitioner in the ongoing investigation by the local police given the fact of illegal acts by the police in pressurising the petitioner to return Swathi to her father’s custody.

The fact that such a “settlement” took place in Ramannapet Police Station itself shows that the police did not act fairly in this case, he alleged. Since the marriage took place in Mumbai and since Swathi had lodged a police complaint in Mumbai apprehending threat from her father, the counsel sought a CBI probe into this issue or a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe with the Court monitoring its progress.

The bench refused this request and instead ordered that a SP rank officer be entrusted with the investigation and posted the matter to June 1, the opening day of the court after summer vacation.