CBI asked to have a relook at Aarushi case: Moily

In the wake of "public sentiment" in the Aarushi Talwar murder case, the Law Ministry has asked the Central Bureau of Investigation to have a fresh look at the closure report in the teenager's death probe, Law Minister M Veerappa Moily said on Sunday.

"CBI is an independent and autonomous organisation. We cannot give directions to it. In the wake of public sentiment in the Aarushi murder case, we called for a meeting of the CBI officials and have asked them to have a relook at the closure report they have submitted on the matter," he told mediapersons in Bengaluru.

CBI had on December 29 filed a closure report in the case before a court on the grounds there was no available evidence at the crime scene to pursue the probe, meeting a dead-end in the case that shook the country over two years back.

Moily had lamented that the CBI failed to "properly investigate" the case and had said he would take a "serious" look into "how such a lapse" took place.

To a question on the Opposition threatening to boycott the coming budget session, if their demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the 2G spectrum scam was not met, Moily termed the warning as "irresponsible statements".

"A CBI inquiry has already been conducted and a Parliamentary Affairs Committee probe is on. If beyond this they feel the necessity of subjecting this (scam) to JPC probe, they have to substantiate it, discuss and debate it in Parliament. Their attitude (of threatening to boycott the budget session) only reveals their breach of duty," Moily said on the sidelines of a function at the Vivesvaraya College of Engineering in Bengaluru.

Meanwhile, a designated CBI court in Ghaziabad will take up on Monday the closure report filed by the agency in the sensational murder of Aarushi Talwar in which it has named her father as a suspect, but has expressed inability to prosecute him because of insufficient evidence.

The court, before which the agency filed the closure report on December 29 after two-and-a-half-years of investigation, is expected to decide whether to accept the plea or ask the CBI to re-investigate the case.