Noida woman’s ‘dowry death’: Police form 6-member SIT team, retired judge’s son absconding

BHOPAL: Police on Saturday constituted a six-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the alleged dowry death case involving a retired district judge and her advocate son, whose 33-year-old wife was found dead at their Katara Hills residence earlier this week.The woman’s Noida-based family had alleged it to be a dowry death, after which an FIR was filed. Though the former district judge was granted an anticipatory bail, her lawyer son has been absconding.The case came into focus after the woman’s family alleged dowry harassment, physical assault and attempts to destroy evidence following her death on May 12 night. Her brother, an Indian Army major, also sought intervention from senior authorities over the alleged delay in registration of the FIR.On Friday evening, a Bhopal court had granted anticipatory bail to the retired judge, while the hearing on her son’s anticipatory bail plea is scheduled for Monday.Officials said the SIT will be headed by an ACP-rank officer and will include a woman police officer along with a member from the cyber cell. Police have also intensified efforts to trace and arrest the son of the retired judge, against whom an FIR was already registered, along with his mother, under provisions related to dowry death and cruelty. Multiple teams have been deployed as part of the search operation, police said.“An SIT has been constituted to probe into the matter. All aspects of the case will be investigated. I will be heading the SIT. At the same time, efforts are on to arrest the accused and teams have been deployed,” ACP Rajnish Kashyap told TOI.A copy of the post-mortem report conducted at AIIMS Bhopal, accessed by TOI earlier, stated that the woman died due to “antemortem hanging by ligature”. The report also noted multiple simple injuries on other parts of the body, possibly caused by blunt force. Blood and viscera samples have been preserved for toxicological analysis, while nail clippings were secured for DNA examination. The report further recorded that the ligature material was “neither present in situ nor submitted” for examination.Police sources said investigators are examining all forensic, digital and circumstantial evidence as part of the SIT probe.