The Supreme Court on Monday said it was giving the Haryana Police “one more opportunity” as it came down heavily on the force for a “slack investigation” in the murder of Delhi-based HR professional Yuvraj Manchanda.
Manchanda’s sister intervened in the matter to point out that unclaimed bodies are cremated one on top of the other, another reason why the evidence gets lost. His post-mortem was also noted to be missing information that would be crucial to developing a full picture of his death. It also questioned why deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Hitesh Yadav had spared suspension action against police and forensic officials for botching up the probe after the state informed the court that disciplinary action is pending against the Badshahpur station house officer and control room operator along with two doctors who conducted the forensic probe and post-mortem, while the investigating officer had been suspended. The court was informed that DCP Yadav was then the jurisdictional head of the district police and, recently, had been shifted to the traffic department, while a new officer came in his position. Granting four weeks time for the state to rectify its errors, the court asked the state government to cooperate with the Delhi Police conducting the probe and conclude departmental action against the three officials. It had directed the commissioners of both Delhi and Gurugram police to file separate affidavits explaining the lapses in the case. As the court had constituted a committee headed by former Delhi High Court judge and senior advocate Mukta Gupta to prepare standard operating procedure (SOP) on tracking missing persons, the bench directed it to also frame SOP on disposal of unclaimed bodies. It suggested that the police may even employ the service of voluntary organisations who can provide a dignified cremation to such bodies.
Manchanda was killed by a former colleague and partner in Gurugram on September 6. His body was recovered from a drain in the city on September 10, and despite a missing persons entry on an interstate portal, was subsequently cremated by officials at the Badshahpur police station. The court had on September 22 taken cognisance of the Manchanda murder case while hearing a suo motu case relating to missing persons and for a uniform protocol to track down such persons.
However, the court was shown the post-mortem conducted by Haryana Police had failed to note the gun wounds and declared the “cause of murder” to be death due to drowning.
