Doubts have been raised over the manner in which the State government issued orders asking the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to investigate the death of Shreya Benny, a 12-year-old girl who was found dead in a pond on the Accept Krupa Bhavan campus here on October 17, 2010.
Kalarkode Venugopal Nair, social worker, who had petitioned the Kerala High Court requesting it to monitor the Crime Branch investigation into the case, said at a press conference here on Monday that the court had not found fault with the Crime Branch investigation, led by the Deputy Superintendent of Police Rajagopal Nair. Further, the government had not been requested to hand over the case to the CBI.
He alleged that the State government's move smacked of a hidden agenda.
Mr. Venugopal Nair said the High Court, on his petition, had asked the magistrate court here to monitor the investigation and obtain regular updates from the investigating officer. The only block for the investigation was the refusal of a priest to undergo a narco-analysis test.
Shreya, daughter of Benny Ezhapara, an autorickshaw driver, was attending a personality development camp at the Bhavan, a rehabilitation centre run by the Changanassery Archdiocese of the Catholic Church. She reportedly went missing at night from the room she was sharing with other camp mates and was found dead the following morning.
The post-mortem report and investigations by the local police found nothing mysterious in the death, with the police reaching the assumption that the girl could have “walked in her sleep and accidentally fallen into the pond.”
However, the injuries on her face, confusion over whether she had the habit of sleepwalking, and the reported contradictions in the statements given by the inhabitants and the authorities of the Bhavan made her parents suspicious. They submitted a memorandum to the then Chief Minister, V.S. Achuthanandan, following which the investigation was handed over to the Crime Branch.
The Crime Branch, during the course of the investigation, had drained the pond following suspicion on the injuries found on the body. Though the Bhavan authorities said fish in the pond could have caused the injuries, no fish that could cause them were found when the pond was emptied.
