Ranchi, Jun 10 The Jharkhand High Court has pulled up the CID over the slow pace of investigation into the disappearance of a minor girl from Bokaro more than five years ago, questioning the agency's efforts to trace her.
A division bench of Justices Sujit Narayan Prasad and Pradeep Kumar Srivastava, while hearing a petition filed by the girl's mother Usha Jha, observed that despite the passage of over five years, the victim was yet to be recovered.
The court was informed that the investigating officer had told a lower court on September 21, 2022 that four persons -- Janta Turi, Rahmali Ansari, Ram Narayan Hembram and Ganesh Lal Mishra -- were suspected in the case.
According to the submission, the four had agreed to undergo narco-analysis tests. While three suspects underwent the tests, Rahmali Ansari was declared medically unfit.
The HC questioned the CID on what medical documents had been produced to establish Ansari's unfitness for the test.
The bench also noted that no subsequent steps had been taken to ascertain whether Ansari was currently fit to undergo the test or to conduct the examination at a later stage.
Observing that the case had remained in "cold storage" for a long period, the court said the matter was transferred to the CID only on April 20 this year after the HC took cognisance of it.
The case relates to the disappearance of a class IX student from Kurma village under Pindrajora police station in Bokaro district on October 16, 2020.
The girl had left home around 10.45 am for tuition classes. About an hour later, villagers found her bicycle and school bag with books scattered on the roadside. She has remained untraceable since then.
