India’s Jharkhand High Court on Thursday released its judgment ordering a new investigation into the killing of a man which took place in the district of Latehar in 2021. The court in its judgment held that the initial police investigation was “hasty” and that it must order a new investigation to stress that “the Rule of Law is meant for everybody.”

Bramdev Singh, who is a member of a scheduled tribe, was shot and killed along with five others by local police. The officers involved filed a First Information Report (FIR), or police report, saying the group fired first and that Singh was not killed by a bullet. Singh’s widow, Jirimanvi Devi, later accused the officers of murder, leading Jharkhand police to lodge an FIR against eight officers involved in Singh’s death. However, the case against the officers was later closed despite it later being admitted that Singh died as a result of being shot by police.

In this judgement, Justice Sanjay Kumar Dwivedi ordered senior police officers to form a new team for the investigation and to update the court three months after the probe is finished. Additionally, the court ordered that officers involved with the previous investigation not participate in a new one. The high court continued by declaring that the inadequate inquiry had to be addressed “with an iron hand within the bounds of the law.”