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Saturday, Jul 17, 2004

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Judicial probe ordered into official's death

By Our Staff Correspondent

BHOPAL, JULY 16. The Madhya Pradesh Government has decided to order a judicial inquiry to probe the death of the Deputy Commissioner of Commercial Tax Department, R.K. Jain, in Lokayukta police custody on Thursday.

Making the announcement today in the Assembly at the end of a discussion on Mr. Jain's death, Ms. Bharti said: "Our heart goes out to the bereaved family and the entire House shares the same sentiments."

Announcing the decision to upgrade the magisterial probe ordered earlier, she said it was "normal procedure" to order a magisterial probe into custodial deaths under Section 374 of the Criminal Procedure Code. She said a CID investigation had also been ordered. "Since it is an open and shut case," the CID would be given a 48-hour deadline to conclude its investigations. Ms. Bharti told the House that the Deputy Superintendent of Police, M.S. Nain, who was heading the Special Lokayukta Police team that had arrested Mr. Jain, had been relieved of his charge.

On the members' demand that a case of murder be registered against the Lokayukta police, she said that it would amount to crossing the limits.

This was greeted by loud protests from the Opposition Congress, and the party MLA from the Bhopal North constituency, Arif Aqueel, staged a walkout.

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