Orissa High Court has issued notices to the state government seeking details of case of 'unnatural' death of a 14-year-old boy in 2012 after a petition claimed that due procedure was not followed by police in the matter.
Adjudicating over the writ filed by a Balasore-based journalist over the death of a 14-year-old school boy, Justice S C Parija yesterday issued notices to State DGP, Balasore SP and Simulia police station in-charge among others.
The scribe Harish Chandra Shaw in his petition had alleged that Narottam Sahoo, a class IX student of Kanhei Bandha High School, was found hanging from a ceiling fan in his home at Maharara village under Simulia Police Station limit in Balasore district on October 3, 2012.
While Narottam's family did not bring this to the notice of police, the Grama Rakshi (village guard) intimated the police about this death following which an unantural death case was registered at Simulia police station and an Investigating Officer assigned.
"But the IO directed the villagers to cremate the body without even conducting an inquest or sending it to hospital for post-mortem," petitioner's advocate Nishikant Mishra alleged.
After getting relevant information about the case through a Right to Information (RTI) Act application, the local journalist approached the High Court stating that inquest, inquiry and investigation of sudden, suspicious or unnatural deaths are necessary under criminal procedure code (CrPC) to ascertain the cause of death and to apprehend and punish the offender, if any.
