Kolkata, Nov 5 (IANS) West Bengal police have started their probe into the unnatural death of Jatin Sarkar, a key witness in the serial killings of children and young women of Nithari village in Noida, two months after his body was fished out of a river in the state’s Murshidabad district, officials said.
The Supreme Court had earlier sought an explanation from the West Bengal home secretary as to why the state police had not registered an FIR immediately after Sarkar’s death near Behrampore town in Murshidabad, over 200 km from here.
The apex court served the notice to the home secretary on the basis of a petition filed by Sarkar’s wife Bandana.
Sarkar’s daughter Pinki, 19, was one of the victims of the Nithari serial killings and he had been actively pursuing the case against the accused, Noida-based businessman Moninder Singh Pandher and his domestic aide Surendra Kohli.
His body was found in the Bhagirathi river Sep 1, nine days before he was to depose in a Ghaziabad court. His widow had alleged that he was killed and dumped in the river, but the police had refused to register the FIR.
Asked if the CBI director and two others named as co-accused in Bandana’s complaint would be quizzed, Baharampur inspector-in-charge Dilip Ganguly said it was too early to say anything.
“The law does not prohibit us from interrogating anybody in connection with a case,” he said.
At least 19 human skulls and bones were dug up near Pandher’s house in Noida in December 2006.