Kerala High Court Rehears Appeal Moved By Deceased ADM Naveen Babu's Wife Seeking CBI Probe After Change Of Counsel

ADM Naveen Babu was found hanging in his official quarters on October 15, 2024. PP Divya, a member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) which has currently formed the government in Kerala is accused of abetting Babu's suicide by humiliating him in public, during his farewell function. Babu's wife alleged a homicidal angle to the incident and argued that due to Divya's political influence, the investigation must be carried out by CBI, rather than the Special Investigation Team (SIT).

On February 6, after hearing the arguments of Senior Advocate S Sreekumar, the Court reserved the matter for orders. However, Naveen Babu's family expressed dissatisfaction with Senior Advocate S Sreekumar's request for a Crime Branch investigation, instead of CBI investigation. Consequently, Naveen Babu's family engaged Senior Advocate K Ramkumar to represent them.

The Division Bench of Justice P.B.Suresh Kumar and Justice Jobin Sebastian heard Senior Advocate K Ramkumar and reserved the matter for orders.

It was submitted before the Court that the present investigation was improper since they were not investigating the angle of homicidal hanging. It was submitted that the police as well as the SIT had already concluded that it was a case of suicide and had failed to investigate the angle of homicidal hanging. It was argued that the investigating agency filed an affidavit stating that the investigation was ongoing, but in other parts of the affidavit, they have referred to it as suicide. Therefore, it was argued that the present investigation is faulty and that the investigation must be handed over to an independent and impartial agency, like CBI to establish the truth.

Further, the Senior Advocate argued that medical examinations of blood stains on clothes and viscera are not being investigated properly. It was submitted that even before the post-mortem was completed, police officers prematurely labelled it as a case of suicide, seemingly in an effort to save the accused.

Relying upon Periya Double Murder case, it was submitted that the appellate court must hand over the investigation to the CBI.

It was submitted that this was a case where the widow of the deceased had approached the Court for a CBI probe to find the cause behind her husband's death, and that the Court must consider their apprehensions about the present investigation.

The Court while reserving its order has directed Director General of Prosecution, T A Shaji to hand over the case diary to examine whether there are discrepancies between the FIS and FIR.

Case Title: Manjusha K v CBI

Case No: WA 193/2025