BHOPAL/JABALPUR: A single-judge bench of MP High Court on Tuesday granted six more weeks to Jabalpur police to file a report on the progress made in the investigation into mysterious Khatua murder case after SP, Jabalpur, told the court that police have received some vital clues in the case.
Wife of junior works manager at Jabalpur gun carriage factory, Sharda Charan Khatua, had filed a petition in the high court in 2019 seeking a CBI investigation into her husband's murder, who had disappeared the day when he was summoned by the CBI for interrogation in connection with scam relating to use of Chinese bearing in the manufacturing of first indigenous 155 MM artillery gun in India, Dhanush.
His body was recovered from the compound where he lived 20 days later.
The petitioner while alleging failure on the part of the police to unravel the mystery shrouding murder of her husband and bring the culprits to book has demanded a CBI probe into the case. She said that a Delhi-based firm was given the contract for supply of bearing for the artillery gun, which supplied Chinese bearing with a seal "Made in Germany".
After the scam surfaced, the CBI started investigation into the case. It had summoned Sharda Charan Khatua, who was junior works manager in the gun carriage factory, Jabalpur, for interrogation on January 17, 2019. On the same day, Khatua had gone for morning walk but didn't return. His body was recovered on February 5, 2017, from near the pump house in the factory premises, where he lived. In the CCTV footage, he is seen coming into the factory premises indicating that he was killed inside the factory premises.
However, months after the incident, the police have failed to solve the case and nab the culprits. She, therefore, requested the court to order a CBI probe into the incident. In the previous hearing of the case, the court of justice Vishal Dhagat had asked for presence of SP, Jabalpur during hearing of the case to apprise the court of the progress made by the SIT formed by the district police to investigate the case.
