PANJIM: Nearly a month after the High Court of Bombay at Goa ordered transferring the probe of Finnish national Felix Dahl’s death case, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday took over the case to investigate it afresh.
Sources said the government had issued a notification to hand over the case to the CBI and accordingly the probe was transferred.
The Division Bench comprising Justice N M Jamdar and Justice Prithviraj Chavan, had on July 6, ordered the transfer of the case to CBI after the family petitioned the court that the youth’s death was unexplained, still a mystery and alleged that the local police had messed up the investigation. Public prosecutor S Rivonkar had, however, defended the police saying that the investigation carried out by Canacona police had found no evidence against the suspects in the case and that the injuries on Dahl’s head were circumstantial, caused because he fell down.
The Court had issued an order stating that the police probe into Dahl’s death was “not indicative of fair and impartial”. The court in its order had also asked the State government to wake up to the alarming issue of foreigners’ deaths in Goa.
“We are not commenting on the correctness of the cause in every case, but such occurrences themselves and the resultant situations are not conducive for the perception about the existence of the rule of law. We are of the opinion that the State of Goa should take a review of this situation on a priority basis. The State could consider setting up a Special Cell headed by a senior officer to deal with such investigations. The State may consider not to let such investigations
remain in the hands of the local police alone. We trust that the State will take appropriate positive steps in this regard,” the order had said.
“CBI has been chosen by the High Courts in several cases. Considering the case from all angles, we are satisfied that it is necessary to transfer the investigation of this case to the CBI,” the order further said.
Dahl was found dead outside a local person’s house in Canacona on January 28, 2015. The mother of the victim had moved the court as she was not satisfied with the police probe.
