The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court on Tuesday issued notice to the Maharashtra government, on a writ petition seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the death of a seven-year-old girl, who was found in state Bharatiya Janata Party chief Nitin Gadkari's car.
Hearing the petition filed by the girl's parents, vacation Judge Justice S R Dongaonkar fixed the next hearing on May 29, by which it asked the state government to reply to the notice.
Yogita was found dead under mysterious circumstances in Gadkari's private car at his residence in Nagpur last Tuesday. Yogita's parents -- Vimal and Ashok Thakre -- in their petition said that the death was due to 'smothering', as per the post-mortem report, and amounted to homicide.
Even the vehicle was removed immediately by staff members of Gadkari without police conducting a 'panchnama' of the vehicle, their counsel Anjan Dev told the court. The petitioners suspected foul play as there were blood stains on Yogita's body.
Guards were on duty at Gadkari's residence that day and none of them took the initiative to report the death to the police, they said.
The petitioners contended that it was shocking and surprising that the car was immediately sent to the city airport to pick up Gadkari, who was returning from Mumbai in the evening, without seizure of the car, which is a normal practice.
Also, the police did not take any steps to recover the fingerprints or other material evidences that may have been available in the car.
The petitioners felt that a proper investigation was not conducted by the police in the death case and hence sought a CBI probe into the case.
