Allahabad High Court pulls up CBI, DoPT, directs probe into death of Indian woman in US

Prayagraj: The Allahabad High Court recently directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to conduct an investigation into the death of a woman living in Seattle, United States of America (USA).

A bench of Justices Vivek Kumar Birla and Arun Kumar Singh Deshwal was hearing a plea filed by the mother of the deceased who died allegedly under suspicious circumstances.

The court in an order dated September 21 noted that though there was no requirement to seek consent of the state government in order to conduct the probe under Section 188 (dealing with offences committed outside India) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the CBI and the Department of Personnel and Training were shirking responsibility.

"The CBI as well as DoPT are unnecessarily raising a technical issue and shifting the burden on each other instead of taking any fruitful action to conduct the investigation into the death of the daughter of the petitioner in the United States of America. We find that by filing a short counter affidavit, the Union of India and other respondents are shirking their responsibilities and are doing nothing," the bench remarked.

According to the mother, her daughter's marriage took place on November 27, 2020 following which she moved to the US along with her husband. The daughter died allegedly in a blast at the couple's home and on learning about the same, the mother got an FIR registered with the local police in Meerut on September 28, 2023. The mother levelled allegations of dowry death against her daughter's husband, following which a copy of the FIR was sent to the MHA.

About a month later, on October 15, 2023, the office of the Senior Superintendent of Police, Meerut, submitted a report to the inspector general of police, Meerut Zone, recommending a CBI probe as the woman died in suspicious circumstances outside India.

The mother moved high court finding no headway in her daughter's death case.