Kerala High Court orders CBI probe into soldier’s disappearance 14 years ago

The Kerala High Court has directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to investigate a 14-year-old missing case of a soldier, who was a rifleman with the Tripura State Rifles, a paramilitary force.

Justice G. Girish issued the order on a petition by the soldier’s father seeking a CBI investigation to find out what happened to his son. The peaceful sleep enjoyed by a civilian was “at the cost of sleepless nights, vigilance and sacrifice of the soldier,” and civil society owed a responsibility to stand by the soldier who protects them if he faced a personal crisis, the court stated.

Subash Chandra Bose, a native of Vengoor in Ernakulam, went missing on April 4, 2012, while returning from leave in Kerala to Guwahati by train. His father last saw him at the Ernakulam railway station on April 3, 2012. The father received a phone call from his son the next day, from an unfamiliar mobile number, to inform him that the train had reached Visakhapatnam and that he was not feeling well. However, on April  10, 2012, the Commandant of Tripura State Rifles informed the father that his son had not reported back to the office after the leave period. 

The State government stated that it had no objection to handing over the case to the CBI. However, the CBI contended that the court did not have territorial jurisdiction, since Mr. Bose had gone missing somewhere between Visakhapatnam and Guwahati. It also contended that there was only a very rare possibility of tracing the missing person after a lapse of 14 years.

The court held that, under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, if an offence is committed during a journey, a court with local jurisdiction in the places forming part of the journey may order an inquiry. The court observed that a premier investigating agency like the CBI was not expected to take a pessimistic view in a case like this. The court recognised that the golden hours in a missing persons case were 48 to 72 hours. Yet, it stated that in cases where a paramilitary Jawan who guarded the nation’s borders went missing without leads, the court could not shut its doors against him when a CBI investigation is sought as a last resort.