India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has officially registered a murder case and launched a fresh investigation into the perplexing death of a 23-year-old hotel management graduate, which occurred over eight years ago in southwest Delhi's Dwarka area. This development comes after the Delhi High Court, acting on a plea from the deceased's parents, transferred the long-stalled probe from the Delhi Police, citing serious concerns over the initial investigation.
A Case Shrouded in Mystery and Alleged Negligence
The incident dates back to June 12, 2017. The victim, Arnav Duggal, an employee of the ITC Grand Bharat hotel, was found dead in his girlfriend's flat located in Dwarka's Sector 10. The local police initially treated the case as a suicide. According to the girlfriend, Megha, she discovered Duggal hanging from a ceiling fan, cut the rope to bring him down, and then alerted others.
However, persistent doubts raised by Duggal's parents, Anu and her husband, led to the Crime Branch registering a murder case a year later, following a court order. Despite this, the investigation saw no significant progress for years. The Delhi Police maintained that their probe was thorough and did not find evidence pointing to homicide.
Court's Scathing Observations and Critical Evidence
Over the years, various courts have expressed strong disapproval of the police investigation. In a significant observation in 2018, a city court highlighted glaring inconsistencies. The court noted the presence of "cobweb" and "settled dust" on the ceiling fan, which remained completely undisturbed.
"It is inconceivable that if a person weighing about 80kg would have hung himself from the fan using a cloth, the dust settled on the fan and even the fragile cobweb would remain completely undisturbed," the court stated. This critical observation was based on photographs of the room provided by Duggal's father, taken on the day of the incident.
The court order further accused the police of a "deliberate attempt" from the beginning to steer the probe towards suicide. It also questioned the absence of typical ligature marks on the back of Duggal's neck, which are commonly found in hanging cases.
The Events Leading to the Tragedy and the Long Wait for Justice
As per the details gathered during the initial probe, Arnav Duggal, a resident of Patel Nagar, had gone to meet his girlfriend Megha on June 11, 2017. Megha told the police that they had gone out with two of her female friends to clubs in Safdarjung and Malviya Nagar, and later to a place in Noida. Duggal reportedly dropped the two friends home before driving Megha to her Dwarka apartment.
Megha informed the authorities that her mother and brother were away visiting relatives, and her father, a former navy officer working in the private sector, was at his office. The next day, she claimed to have woken up in the afternoon, assumed Duggal had left, but found the main door locked from inside. Upon checking another room, she allegedly found him hanging and subsequently called her father, who then alerted the police via the security guard.
Frustrated by what they termed a "lackadaisical probe," Arnav Duggal's parents approached the Delhi High Court. The court recently accepted their plea and ordered the transfer of the investigation to the CBI, hoping for a breakthrough in the eight-year-old mystery that has haunted the family.
The CBI's entry marks a new chapter in this protracted legal battle, as the premier investigative agency now shoulders the responsibility of uncovering the truth behind the tragic death of the young hotel management graduate.
