The Supreme Court directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe the death of a 19-year-old MBBS student, who allegedly hung herself in her hostel room in Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly in 2017.

A bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Sudhanshu Dhulia directed the CBI to file a report before an appropriate court after the conclusion of the investigation. The order of the apex court came after the Uttar Pradesh Police and UP Crime-Branch Crime Investigation Department (CBCID) arrived at contradictory findings in the case.

“A young girl child has died an unnatural death while pursuing medical studies and two investigating agencies have given reports, one in the form of charge sheet arraigning two individuals as accused and the other filing closure report,” the bench noted in its order.

It added, “In view of the fact that there appears to be a contradiction in the two reports filed by the two investigating agencies and also considering the nature of these cases, we are of the opinion that further investigation ought to be undertaken by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the two investigating agencies shall assist the CBI in this regard. On conclusion of investigation, the report shall be filed by the CBI before appropriate Court.”

The order of the top court came on a plea filed in 2018 by the father of the deceased MBBS student. The first-year student was found hanging from the ceiling of her hostel room at Shri Ram Murti Smarak Institute of Medical Sciences in Bareilly in 2017. Her two roommates had told the police that the Noida resident had been tense for the past two days and had not gone to college because of illness.

The father had sought a CBI probe saying that though the student’s death was made out to be a case of suicide, it was an unnatural death. After the FIR was lodged, police submitted a charge sheet in connection with the complaint in which two persons were arraigned as accused. Later, the investigation was handed over to the crime investigation division CBCID – another investigating wing of the State police.

CBCID filed a closure report in the case. The apex court sending the probe to CBI said that “there appears to be a contradiction in the two reports filed by the two investigating departments.