Malerkotla: CBI to probe Vidhu Jain’s mysterious death

Eleven years after 11-year-old Vidhu Jain was burnt to death on September 30, 2013, CBI sleuths have once again visited the town to seek replies to questions that remained unanswered in earlier investigations.

The fresh endeavour is aimed at enabling sleuths to explain and substantiate unanswered questions enumerated in CBI court orders accepting a protest petition filed by the aggrieved Jain family and declining the closure report submitted by the investigating agency.

However, the aggrieved family — led by Vidhu’s father, Navneet Jain and his uncle, Vinod Jain — said the reinvestigation orders passed by the Special Judicial Magistrate, CBI, Punjab, came too late for the petitioner, Vidhu’s mother, who has passed away.

Navneet Jain said, “Unfortunately, the CBI too worked slowly and ignored facts of the case. Moreover, the suspects have managed to build pressure in political spheres by now; that is why the administration has withdrawn our security before commencing reinvestigation.” The Jain brothers acknowledged that members of the CBI team had started visiting various spots after meeting them.

There were various unanswered questions such as the role of Khalil, the deaf and dumb witness, Vidhu’s behaviour, and identification of suspects and the purchase of kerosene oil in a beverage bottle, among others, that need to be reinvestigated, according to the court orders.

After Punjab Police failed to crack the case for over a year, the Punjab and Haryana High Court, on a petition by Vidhu’s mother, ordered a CBI inquiry into the case on November 29, 2014.

The aggrieved family has been running from pillar to post to seek justice for the alleged murder of Vidhu. According to them, the child was burnt alive by some unknown persons belonging to a particular community on the fateful day when he was on his way to his younger brother Naman’s school to hand him his lunchbox.

The Jain family said they were unhappy as justice was denied while various political parties — the SAD-BJP alliance, the Congress, and Aam Aadmi Party — ruled the state, and while the Congress and BJP were in power at the Centre.

There have been instances where the family as well as supporters of their case have tried to persuade the government for action, but to no avail. The Vidhu Jain Insaaf Yatra from Durgiana Mandir in Amritsar went to the Prime Minister Office on August 31, 2015 (Vidhu’s birthday); the family and supporters wrote letters signed in blood and there were a number of protests and memoranda, which failed to bring solace to the aggrieved family.

The deceased’s mother, Aarti Jain, had petitioned the High Court for a CBI probe. She claimed her son was burnt to death by five people who belonged to a particular community. The family had based their contention on a video filmed by two policemen that went viral on social media. A video captured the last glimpse of Vidhu riding his bicycle with a lunchbox, and this had emerged as the most watched post on social media in those days when the environment had become emotionally surcharged.

A perusal of records revealed the CBI had submitted a closure report in connection with the case. The report said it was a case of self-immolation, and following this the Jain family filed a protest petition, demanding a reinvestigation.

The investigating agency claimed to have conducted a thorough probe.

Acknowledging the promptness and diligence of the local police, the CBI team brought on record that an ambulance was arranged and the victim was shifted to the hospital. A postmortem on the body was conducted by a board of doctors of Malerkotla Civil Hospital and the proceedings were videographed. There was a serious law and order problem in the town following the incident and police from surrounding areas were called to control the situation.

During earlier investigations, the CBI team had reconstructed the crime scene and taken the services of specialists in various fields. Experts visited the town for a psychological autopsy of all parties concerned, including Khalil, the deaf and dumb first witness who was questioned with the help of three sign language experts from Chandigarh.

The services of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, were taken for an intensive study of skin wounds. Also, photographs of the deceased riding his bicycle carrying a lunchbox and a bottle were also sent to the Film Factory in Bangalore to improve the quality of the screengrabs.