Court orders prod CBI to rejuvenate efforts

After a double whammy from the Supreme Court on the missing children case a few weeks ago, the crime bureau of the CBI has expedited investigation in the case of Anup Kispotta aka Annu (4), and Ranjit Kispotta aka Guddu (8), who disapppeared on September 28, 2010, from Namkum in Ranchi.

Earlier, the agency had filed a review petition against the decision of the Jharkhand High Court, which asked the CBI not only to investigate the Kispotta case but also all such unsolved cases of missing children in Jharkhand.

The apex court is yet to pass instructions over the operative portion of the CBI plea against the high court’s direction. The CBI is worried that if the Supreme Court upholds the high court decision, it will open a Pandora’s box.

There are a total of 297 such unsolved missing children cases in police records. Jharkhand is known as a hub of child trafficking and the CBI will be burdened with endless number of cases if the Supreme Court disagrees with its appeal.

The Jharkhand High Court, on October 18 last year, had directed the agency during hearing of a PIL filed by Susanna Kispotta, who sought the court’s intervention to trace his two nephews.

A Bench of Justice DK Jain of the Supreme Court chided the CBI and said the agency’s attitude was astonishing. In the past two years, this was going to be the third case of missing children that the high court had handed over to the Central investigating agency on aggrieved parents’ pleas. The two other cases are that of Akash Raj and his two friends — Shashank Shekhar and Pawan Soni — who went missing from Gumla since March 30, 2008 and one from Bano, Simdega.

CBI sources in Ranchi said that all these cases are being investigated by a team of eight officials headed by DSP BK Singh. More than three hundred pamphlets and handbills have been distributed and pasted across Ranchi and others. The Anu and Guddu missing case is in the initial phase. But the CBI has ruled out it the case of abduction for ransom or personal feud.

“Their parents are very poor. They have not received any ransom call. These boys have certainly not been murdered. We suspect that they might have been allured or lifted by gangs involved in human trafficking. We are investigating different aspects of the case. Meanwhile, we have pamphlets at all public places to seek information,” a top CBI official said. In the Raj-Sekhar-Soni case the CBI has discovered human bones which have been sent for the DNA test in Hyderabad. So far, the CBI has examined 40 people and rounded-up nine suspects in these cases.

But the CBI has its own sets of concerns. These cases are quite old. And by the time the CBI was asked to investigate vital links were missing and the police have already botched-up the case.

CBI sources claimed that the case despite being critical and confusing in nature the investigation will reach to a logical conclusion. But the CBI blamed the agency is paying penalty of lethargic state police. Primarily, this is the duty of the police. Premier agencies should not be involved in such cases.

Crime bureau branch of the CBI in Ranchi having a total of 44 staffs, has investigating 17 important cases right from Madhu Koda scam to Rajya Sabha horse trading case. Missing children case has just been added into.