M’luru: Medical student’s death in 2014 – SC transfers probe to CBI

Mangaluru / New Delhi: Supreme Court has ordered a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the death of a medical student in 2014 at Tannir Bavi beach road.

The bench headed by Justice M R Shah, which was hearing the petition moved by the father of the deceased, observed that the probe conducted by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Bengaluru into the death of 21-year-old Rohit Radhakrishnan was unsatisfactory. The Court also directed the CID to pay the petitioner Rs 1 lakh as a penalty.

The court told CBI to file periodic status reports of the investigation being carried out, once every 2 months.

Rohit, a final year MBBS student, was found dead with his head severed from the body at the Tannir Bhavi beach road, on March 23, 2014. Police had claimed the death to be a road accident.

Unhappy with the probe Rohit’s father, M S Radhakrishnan who is a practicing lawyer, had made a representation for a probe by CID, Bengaluru. Thereafter case had been handed to the CID but there was little progress.

In April 2016, M S Radhakrishnan petitioned the Karnataka High Court for transferring the case to the CBI Bengaluru. Thereafter, he approached the Supreme Court under Article 32 of the Indian Constitution to change the investigating agency,  so as to find the real cause of his son’s death.