The CBI has taken over the investigation into the death of an Indian Navy sailor 25 years ago on directions of Hyderabad High Court.
The court had acted on a plea of the sailor's mother who has been fighting a protracted legal battle to know the cause of her son's 'mysterious' death during a training session.
Amar Ashok Paldhe was doing a high altitude commando jump into the sea in Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh on September 23, 1993. He did not surface after it and his body was found two days later.
His mother Anuradha Paldhe and father (now deceased)approached Bombay High Court in 1995, seeking to know the exact cause of the death of their son.
The legal battle continued in different courts--from Bombay High Court, the matter went to Kakinada civil judge as naval authorities raised jurisdictional issue.
The court held that the death resulted from the negligence of authorities.
The Andhra Pradesh Police probe into the death is incomplete even after 25 years.
A single judge bench of the high court ordered the Navy to reconstitute a fresh Board of Inquiry after one such inquiry could not ascertain the cause of death.
The Navy, however, said the local police at Kakinada should have investigated the incident.
Seeking investigation by an independent agency like the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Anuradha Palge pleaded that authorities have expressed inability to investigate the matter and it was doubtful whether the probe would be done by them with due seriousness.
"Adjudicating the writ petition, the learned single Judge held that the findings recorded by the Board of Inquiry is insufficient to be treated as disclosing the cause of death while it was imperative that the pursuit of the Board of Inquiry ought to have been to that extent," the high court bench comprising Justices Thottathil B Radhakrishnan and
S V Bhatt noted in its order.
The HC transferred the case to the CBI to "instill" confidence in the minds of the victim (mother of the deceased soldier).
"This can be achieved in the scales of justice by having the investigation being transferred to the CBI," it added.
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