A two-judge bench of the Apex Court comprising of Sanjiv Khanna and Bela Trivedi has also asked the govt to hand over all the evidence in the Thanjavur girl’s suicide case to the probe agency. The Supreme Court also made it clear that the CBI should also probe the allegations of forced conversion.

 

The top court said that there are two aspects of the matter, one is there are certain observations recorded in the impugned judgment and the second is regarding the final order directing probe by CBI. The apex court said it might not be appropriate for it to interject in the investigation of the CBI but it will issue notice on the first aspect.

 

"Issue notice returnable in three weeks... In the meanwhile, the investigation in terms of the impugned order to continue," the bench said.

 

 

On Jan 31, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court transferred the suicide case of 17-year-old Lavanya, a Class 12 student of Sacred Hearts Higher Secondary School in Michaelpatti of Thanjavur district, to the CBI.

 

A single bench comprising Justice GS Swaminathan passed the orders after a plea by Lavanya’s father seeking a probe by a central agency into his daughter’s death. The court ordered a CBI probe citing the dubious role of local police to suppress investigating the pressure for religious conversion as a possible cause for the girl's suicide. The order had heavily criticised Thanjavur SP Ravali Priya for holding a press conference ruling out conversion angle, stating that the SP ‘probably forgot the virtues of silence’.

 

The suicide case should be investigated from all angles, the judge noted and pulled up the SP for choosing to ‘proclaim’ that "the conversion angle was ruled out, instead of directing the jurisdictional police to conduct an investigation."

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