The Allahabad High Court has voiced strong disapproval over the government’s inaction regarding the missing case of BHU student Shiv Kumar Trivedi, who disappeared from the Lanka police station in Varanasi.
The court expressed astonishment at the apparent negligence of both police officers and government officials in addressing the case.
In a recent directive, the court demanded that the government make a decision within 15 days on whether to grant prosecution sanction for the officers implicated in the investigation’s mishandling.
The court will hear this matter next on 19 September.
Chief Justice Arun Bhasali and Justice Vikas Budhwar, who are overseeing the case, questioned the rationale behind the government’s move to seek permission from itself to prosecute its own officials.
The court’s surprise was evident as it noted the inefficiency of the very authority responsible for granting prosecution permissions.
The court issued its latest order after the government submitted an affidavit detailing that it had sent a request for prosecution permission to the competent authority.
The court took this step in response to its previous instructions.
Advocate Saurabh Tiwari’s public interest petition however highlights that the Lanka police station took BHU student Shiv Kumar Trivedi into custody in February 2020, but he vanished under suspicious circumstances.
Despite the case being transferred to the CBI, the student’s body was later discovered in a pond.
Eight policemen from the Lanka police station face an FIR, but authorities have delayed granting prosecution permission.
The investigation began six months after the incident, and BHU conducted the post-mortem.
The police’s failure to trace the missing student has further compounded the case’s complexities.
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