CBI denies Shankar's involvement in Nithari witness killing

New Delhi, Nov 3 (UNI) The Central Bureau of Investigation, in its counter affidavit filed in the Supreme Court, today denied the allegations of involvement of its former director Vijay Shankar or any other police official in the death of a witness in the Nithari killings case.

A bench comprising Justices B N Agarwal and G S Singhvi granted a week's time to petitioner Vandana Sarkar to file a rejoinder to the counter affidavit filed by the CBI.

Vandana, in her petition, had alleged that Vijay Shankar, along with some police officials of West Bengal, was involved in the murder of her husband Jatin Sarkar, who was found dead under mysterious circumstances on September one, 2007 in Murshidabad district of West Bengal.

According to the petitioner, Jatin, a key witness in Nithari killings case, was under tremendous pressure from the then CBI Director, his subordinate officers and West Bengal police officers, including the SP of the area, not to depose against the culprit in the case.

According to the CBI, Jatin had died due to drowning and was not murdered by anybody as alleged by the petitioner.

The petitioner had also alleged that the local police was not investigating the case properly since policemen were involved and her husband was murdered instead of dying a natural death.

Skeletons of over two dozen children were recovered by the Noida police from a drain behind the house of main accused in the case Maninder Singh Pandher in Noida and the police bungled the investigation, which was subsequently transferred to the CBI.

The CBI investigations proved no better and Pandher's domestic servant, Surinder Koli, was made the main accused and Pandher was virtually given a clean chit.

The case hit the headlines in the media which led to huge public outcry against the heinous crime allegedly perpetrated by the accused people. Most of the victims were teenagers and belonged to the weaker sections of the society.

UNI SC GL RP AS1843