The Delhi High Court today said there was "something fishy" about the manner in which the police were going about investigating the killing of an unidentified woman, whose body was found from the Shanti Van area here a week back.
A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar also said that the Delhi Police appeared to be protecting someone as it had sent the body for post mortem four days after the court had directed it to do so forthwith on May 16.
"Why did you wait till May 20? We had passed orders. Whom are you trying to protect? There is something fishy in this," the court said, adding "you have allowed valuable evidence to vanish".
In response to the queries and observations, the police said it was waiting for the body to be identified.
It also said the medical examiners had assured it that there would be no problems in case of a few days delay in autopsy and that the body has been kept in well refrigerated conditions.
The court's observations came while hearing a fresh PIL filed by social worker Sunil Kumar Aledia seeking directions to the police to do away with its practice of waiting for 72 hours for conducting autopsy of unidentified bodies.
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The bench issued notices to the police, the Delhi government and the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB), and sought their stand on the plea that has also sought an immediate survey of homeless persons in Delhi as it is suspected that victims in two cases were destitute women.
The petition, filed through advocates Kamlesh Kumar Mishra and Sanjay Baniwal, has cited recent incidents of two unidentified women's bodies being found from separate locations and in each case, the police did not carry out post mortem in the first 72 hours.
The court on May 16 had taken suo motu cognisance of one such incident and had directed the police to carry out the autopsy of the body forthwith.
It had also rapped the police for its practice of waiting 72 hours, as per a 2010 standing order of the Delhi Police Commissioner, to carry out post mortem of unidentified bodies