CBI team reaches Malerkotla, starts probe into Vidhu murder case

Parvesh Sharma

Tribune News Service

Sangrur, June 5

On the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, a special Investigations Team (SIT) of CBI has reached Malerkotla to probe the murder case of 11-year-old boy Vidhu Jain, who was allegedly burnt alive in Maleroktla on September 30, 2013.

"We are three officers in SIT, headed by a DSP-rank officer. Two are inspectors of CBI. We reached Malerkotla on Monday and started investigations." a member of SIT told The Tribune today evening.

During day, SIT members visited various places in Malerkotla to gather evidence and also talked to locals and shopkeepers.

As per allegations of the boy's family, Vidhu was burnt alive by some Makerkotla boys, who allegedly had an altercation with the deceased few days before of incident. Though police registered a case and started investigations, Vidhu's family knocked the doors of high court in 2014 for a CBI probe. They alleged that cops had failed to conduct proper investigations after which HC, in November 2014, transferred the case to CBI.

Dissatisfied with the pace of CBI investigations, the family again approached HC in March this year and the court set up a SIT. 

"Though our officers are conducting detailed investigations, the main purpose of setting up a SIT is to expedite the investigations. We would stay here for three-four days, while next week we have called police officers concerned to our Chandigarh office," said a CBI officer on the condition of anonymity.

All senior police officers, including Malerkotla DSP Yogiraj Sharma, said they were unaware about the presence of CBI team in Malerkotla.