CBI probe into Payal Surekhas murder

BANGALORE: In a new twist to the sensational murder case of a 29-year-old Dell employee, Payal Surekha, city court has directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to further investigate the case.“We are hopeful that this time the justice will be done to this case,” Dindayal Sureka, father of Payal told the media. On Tuesday, The 5th Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate directed the CBI to re-investigate the case. Payal was found murdered in her apartment in JP Nagar last December and the police had arrested, James Kumar Roy, business partner of her husband.Though police claim that it was a revenge murder, Dindayal was not convinced and sensed something fishy about the behaviour of Ananth Narayana Mishra, Payal’s husband, who runs a gym in the city.Mishra has influential parents, Rudra Narayana Mishra, his father, is a retired Assistant Commissioner of Police from Orissa and Basanthi Devi Narayana Mishra, his mother, is a retired DCP from Orissa.In his petition before the High court filed in June, Dindayal alleged that the local police have done a partial investigation. Dindayal further alleged that it was Ananth and his parents who had conspired to murder Payal and the police have left out many clinching evidence which proved their involvement in the murder. Dindayal had earlier filed a petition, with the then Police Commissioner of Bangalore Shankar Bidari, but in vain.Following this, Dindayal approached the High court, seeking necessary directions. Considering the plea, Justice Shanthan Goudar redirected the jurisdictional 5th ACMM to issue reinvestigation of the case to either CID or CBI.Local cops’ nepotism?“We feel that the local police have shown partiality and favouritsm in conducting investigations despite several leads that could have been explored,” Advocate M R Nanjunda Gowda told The New Indian Express.“As this case involves persons from interstates including Karnataka, Orissa and others, we requested the court to refer this case to CBI for investigation,” he  added. It is very suspicious that neither Ananth nor his parents attended the funeral and cited the reason that there was no one to take care of their pet dog. “This shows their affection towards their daughter-in-law and they preferred a pet dog over their daughter-in-law,” he said.