The Allahabad High Court on October 12 consigned to record a petition filed by Madhu Dubey, mother of Bhojpuri actress and model Akanksha Dubey, seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into her daughter's death in a hotel room in Varanasi in March 2023.

A bench of Justice Rajeev Misra and Justice Dr. Ajay Kumar-II opined that the arguments advanced to suggest that the actress's death was homicidal rather than suicidal were misconceived.

The bench added that further investigation into the manner of occurrence or cause of death could not be conducted in the absence of the deceased's body.

The Court also noted that no protest petition had been filed against the post-mortem report or the police report/charge sheet submitted by the investigating officer.

The Court passed the order in a criminal miscellaneous writ petition filed by Madhu Dubey, seeking a direction to the CBI to take over the investigation in the FIR registered at a Police Station in Varanasi for further investigation or re-investigation.

During the hearing, the counsel appearing for one of the respondents submitted that the investigating officer had completed the statutory investigation and filed a charge sheet on June 3, 2023, under Section 306 IPC (Abetment of Suicide).

The jurisdictional Magistrate had taken cognizance on June 6, 2023.

Opposing this submission, counsel for Madhu Dubey, Advocate Saurabh Tiwari, argued that spermatozoa had been found in the deceased's private parts and, according to the submission, the forensic examination had matched it with the accused.

On this basis, Advocate Tiwari argued that the death was homicidal. He claimed that she was murdered first and was then hanged by a noose,

Referring to the photographs, he contended that the deceased's left foot could be seen touching the ground, and the deceased was in a seated position on the bed. This, he claimed, clearly indicated that it was a case of murder.

The bench, however, asked whether any objection had been filed against the post-mortem report before the District Magistrate seeking a re-medical examination of the deceased's body.

Advocate Tiwari fairly conceded that no such objection had been filed.

The Court also questioned whether a protest petition had been filed before the jurisdictional Magistrate against the charge sheet submitted by the investigating officer, in light of the Supreme Court's judgment in Bhagwant Singh v. Commissioner of Police and Another 1985.

Advocate Tiwari again conceded that no protest petition had been filed against the police report/charge sheet.

The bench noted that the charge sheet had been filed under Section 306 IPC, which concerns abetment of suicide.

Advocate Tiwari, however, referred to the Supreme Court's decision in the Pooja Pal vs. UOI Case to submit that even after the police have filed the charge sheet and the Court has taken cognizance of the offence, the investigation can still be transferred to the CBI.

However, the Bench was not impressed with his submissions.

"In view of above, we are of the considered opinion that all the arguments raised in the present writ petition in support of the submission that death of deceased is homicidal and not suicidal, are wholly misconceived as in absence of corpus of deceased, no further investigation in the manner of occurrence or cause of death can be conducted", the Court remarked.

Consequently, the Court consigned the petition to the record.

Advocate Raghuvansh Misra appeared for respondent -7 and Advocate Rajesh Pratap Singh appeared for respondent -8

Background

Akanksha Dubey was found dead in a hotel room in Varanasi on March 26, 2023. She had been in the city for a film shoot.

In October 2023, her mother approached the Allahabad High Court seeking a CBI investigation, alleging several irregularities in the investigation conducted by the Uttar Pradesh Police.

The plea questioned the police's conclusion that the actress had died by suicide and alleged that the investigation had not been conducted impartially.

It also raised concerns about the handling of forensic evidence, including the alleged presence of sperm in the deceased's vaginal slide, vaginal swab stick and undergarments.

The petition further questioned the absence of DNA test results of the suspected person on record and alleged that the investigation had failed to effectively match the forensic findings with the suspected person's blood sample.

The plea alleged that the investigation had been tainted from the initial stage and expressed apprehension that CCTV footage might have been tampered with. It also questioned the manner in which the hotel room was unsealed.

Dubey also claimed that the version of the FIR was forcibly obtained by the police from her and it was not the true version of the first informant.

In April 2023, the Uttar Pradesh Police arrested singer Samar Singh and his business partner Sanjay Singh in connection with the case.