Salman Khan is a free man, thanks to Mumbai police

Salman Khan's letting off in the 2002 hit-and-run case brings to mind The Times of India headline on the day after the main accused in the Jessica Lall murder case, Manu Sharma, was acquitted by the trail court in 2006: "No one killed Jessica."

No one, then, was driving the Toyota Land Cruiser that crashed into the American Express Bakery in Bandra on the night of September 28, 2002, killing one person and injuring four others. The case dragged for thirteen inglorious years at the end of which the main accused has been let off.

In fact, the similarities between the Lall and Khan cases don't end there. In Salman's case, the Bombay High Court has expressed concerns on the prosecution's inability to build a watertight case, with enough loose ends to merit an acquittal for Salman. The Delhi trial court had made similar comments when pronouncing its judgement in the Jessica Lall case. (The judgement of the trial court was subsequently overturned by the Delhi High Court.)

Contrast this with two other cases that are also in the public eye right now, the suicide of Jiah Khan and the murder of Sheena Bora. It would seem from the outcomes of the investigations into these cases that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is perhaps the only agency in this country one can rely on when dealing with high-profile cases involving people who wield considerable influence.

In the Jiah Khan case, the chargesheet filed by the CBI this week provides detailed and disturbing descriptions of the situation preceding the actor's suicide. At one point, the chargesheet describes how Suraj Pancholi, Jiah's boyfriend at the time, put her through grave risk by denying her prompt care when she began hemorrhaging after taking abortion pills. Instead of taking her to a hospital, Suraj extricated the foetus himself and flushed it down the toilet.

It was at the behest of the Bombay High Court that Jiah's suicide case was transferred to the CBI last year. Until then, the case had been under a Special Investigating Team of the Mumbai Police. In 2013, Jiah's mother Rabia had appealed to the court to transfer the case to the CBI so that the investigation proceed without fear or favour. With the CBI chargesheet now accusing Suraj Pancholi of abetting Jiah's suicide, Rabia's stand has been vindicated.

Likewise was the case in the Sheena Bora murder case, where the Mumbai police bungled badly when they let Peter Mukerjea off the hook early on in the investigation. Whether this was done due to Peter's influence and friends in high places remains to be probed, but Peter's proximity to the Mumbai police top brass was an open secret when the case first came to light. So it was eminently advisable for the CBI to take over the case, and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis ought to be complimented for this.

Yes, the CBI has not always covered itself in glory, most notably in the way it handled the Aarushi Talwar murder case, where poor execution and petty rivalries seem to have jeopardised the cause of justice. But on the basis of latest evidence, the CBI has been doing some sterling work in untangling cases that can easily get derailed due to the profile of the accused.

It remains to be seen what happens in the Salman Khan case now. The high court dismissed Ravindra Patil's testimony, while the other main witness, singer Kamal Khan, has not made an appearance in the case. He is rumoured to be in London and the prosecution's laxity in recording his statement may have tilted the verdict in Salman's favour. The prosecution has the option of moving the Supreme Court, but given the quality of the case it presented before the high court, it is unlikely to get a different result at the Supreme Court.

As with Jiah's suicide, it is difficult to say how much of the bungling in Salman's case is due to poor policing and how much due to external influence changing the course of the investigation. Whatever the case, the fate of such cases when they are taken out of the purview of the local police and handed over to the CBI indicates that things are not entirely above board at the level of the state police. Indeed a portentous state of affairs!