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Gauhati high court on Wednesday asked Assam Police to submit its reply to a petition for a CBI probe by the father of a 26-year-old chartered accountant of Coal India Limited who was found dead in his official residence on April 4. The court directed police to submit its reply within six weeks.

 

Anand Kumar Agarwal, who hailed from Dumka in Jharkhand, was found dead inside his office flat in upper Assam's Tinsukia district. The family accused state police of taking no action in spite of filing a complaint on April 9.

 

Agarwal's family approached the high court for an impartial probe by CBI. "The high court sought the case diary and asked Assam Police to justify why the case should not be handed over to CBI. A notice was served to Coal India authorities," said the petitioner's counsel, advocate Amit Goyal.

 

In the petition, Anand's family said Coal India authorities had hurriedly sent the body for postmortem before the family members reached Assam. "The role of Anand's flat partner Amit Chowdhury is suspicious. As per Chowdhury's statement, he found Anand dead at 7.45am on April 4. Aman Kumar, the deceased's brother, said he received Rs 5,000 from Anand through net-banking at 11.54pm on the night of April 3, indicating that till midnight on that day, Anand was physically and mentally fit," said the petition.

 

Son of a small Jharkhand-based trader, Anand passed the CA examination in 2013. He subsequently joined Coal India's finance department as a management trainee and was posted at the PSU's Margherita office. He was provided a two-bedroom flat, which he shared with a colleague.

 

 

Source: ToI