Relenting to demands from various citizen groups and staff members of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in Doenar, the state government wants the CBI to take over the investigation into the attack on activist and teacher Shamim Modi.

State Home Minister Jayant Patil, who met social activist N D Patil along with others, said the case would soon be handed over to the CBI as ‘the local police was not equipped to handle the case’.

“The decision was taken in a meeting. We are yet to get any orders. Once indicated, we will immediately write to the CBI and wait for their confirmation,” said a senior IAS official.

Modi, 39, a professor at TISS and a political activist from Madhya Pradesh, was allegedly attacked by a security guard named Rajesh Bahadur alias Jang Bahadur. She was badly injured and was admitted to a hospital in Vasai. She has accused a senior BJP leader from Madhya Pradesh for the attack.

“The home minister agreed to our demands that the matter is concerning more than one state and the accused had fled to his home town in Nepal. Patil agreed to hand over the case to the CBI and assured that the notification to send the case to the central agency will be issued with immediate effect,” said social activist Sanjeev Sane.

The Manickpur police station investigating the case has registered a case of house-breaking. “Besides CBI inquiry, we had demanded that the sections of attempt to murder and conspiracy should also be included. The state move had finally vindicated our campaign,” said Anurag, Modi’s husband.

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