If the Union Home Ministry fails to take a decision on the issue, the Bench may direct a CBI probe, the High Court said while pulling up the Special Investigation Team (SIT) for slow progress of investigation.
The High Court's direction came during the resumed hearing on a PIL filed by local advocate Utsav Bains.
The Haryana government had about a month back recommended a CBI probe into the allegations of sexual abuse and torture, including by police personnel, of the inmates of the 'Apna Ghar' shelter home in Rohtak, which was run by an NGO.
The four advocates' committee, appointed recently by the High Court here, apprehended that if the CBI does not take over the case, evidence may be destroyed.
The committee submitted that the head of now-sealed Apna Ghar, Jaswanti Devi, was an influential person with links among political and police brass.
Recommending forensic examination of cameras, mobile phones and laptops of Jaswanti and other accused Devi and other members, the committee maintained that Jaswanti's high connections could be gauged from the video recording of her daughter's marriage in January.
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They, however, rued that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed earlier to look into the matter, had failed to obtain the CD or marriage photographs.
The SIT, which was pulled up by the court, maintained that it had got only two or three photographs of the marriage and informed the High Court that two laptop and a mobile phone of Jaswanti Devi had been sent for forensic investigation.
The SIT, which submitted a report in a sealed cover, also informed the court that call details of Jaswanti were being probed. However, the bench expressed its displeasure on slow pace of investigation in the case. MORE