IMPHAL, July 3: The family of Richard Loitam is all prepared to petition the Karnataka High Court to hand over the sensational alleged murder case of Richard to the CBI for probe.
The family of Richard is making the appeal to a law court for the first time since his death. The case is now investigating by CID Crime Branch of Karnataka.
All the necessary documents of the case have been submitted to the Imphal based Human Rights Law Network (HRLN) through which Richard’s family is going to the Karnataka High Court, sources said.
HRLN has also completed the collection of the required documents of the case and that the petition is likely to file in the Court by the middle of July.
However, it is said that a case seeking CBI probe should be initiated by a state government but if the government fails to do so, it should be done according to a directive of the concerned High Court of the state or Supreme Court.
At the meant time, the CBI can take up the case directly but the state government requires providing a jurisdiction to empower the investigating agency first.
But in the case of Richard, it has been decided by the family to file the petition directly to the Karnataka High Court as the Manipur government fails to hand over the case to CBI, the sources added.
In case of failure of the Karnataka High Court to give directive to hand over the case to CBI, the family is likely to petition to Supreme Court.
It is worth noting that the alleged murder case of Richard, which is investigating by CID Crime Branch of Karnataka, was first registered as an unnatural death at Madanayakanahalli Police Station, Bangalore.
However, the case was later turned into an FIR case. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), New Delhi has also recently directed the Karnataka government to submit an action taken report on the case within four weeks to the commission.
Richard, who was a student of Archarya Institute of Technology, Bangalore was allegedly beaten to death by his seniors over an IPL match. He was found dead in his hostel room on May 18 last.
