Serial killings: Delhi Police slammed for 'lopsided' probe

NEW DELHI: A trial court has slammed Delhi Police for a "lopsided" probe into the recovery of headless bodies near Tihar Jail four years ago after the alleged serial killer sought his discharge in one of the cases. The accused claimed that the victim was not one for whose murder he was being tried.
Additional sessions judge Kamini Lau rebuked the police after it failed to respond to Chandrakant Jha's plea for his discharge from the murder of one Amit, saying the DNA profile of the deceased did not match with that of his parents and this implied he was being tried for the murder of a wrong Amit.
"No doubt, the DNA report has exposed the lopsided probe conducted by the police. This court cannot ignore that a body has been recovered and a human life was lost," said Lau as Hari Nagar police station in-charge failed to explain Jha's plea during a hearing in the Delhi serial killer case.
"It is necessary to find out who was the victim/deceased and also whether the accused was in any manner connected with the offence," the judge said, asking the police to try to unravel the mystery.
In the report, the police said Jha's associate, Anil Mandal alias Amit had been missing since the recovery of a body which had a tattoo mark 'Amit' on its right arm.
The report also claimed Jha's handwriting too tallied with a note recovered on the body while a telephone booth owner, too, identified him as the person who had made a call to Hari Nagar police station after dumping the body. A native of Madhepura in Bihar, Jha was arrested on May 20, 2007, in the case. However, the DNA of the deceased did not match with those of Amit's parents.
The court noted the police said deceased Amit was an associate and co-accused of Jha in other criminal cases while other Amit, whom police was earlier considering as a victim and associate of Jha, was someone else. The court also said that as per the RTI reply, the victim was not the same as the police had identified.
"I have also gone through the detailed reply of the RTI placed before me by counsel for the accused. It is writ large that the victim so identified by the police is not the same person as was originally sought to be made out by the investigating agency...The material question which now arises is if the deceased was not the same person as the investigating agency thought he was, then who was he?," ASJ Lau said.