During the hearing of a habeas corpus petition filed by Nicole’s wife Pema Tamang, the Division Bench comprising Chief Justice J N Patel and Asim Kumar Roy pointed out that Nicole was last seen with CID inspector A S Pahari who was investigating the murder probe when the accused was brought to Pintale village in Siliguri from Darjeeling on August 22.

What steps have been taken against Pahari and why the case on Nicole’s missing was again entrusted with the CID despite that he managed to escape from the CID custody, the bench asked.

To which state government’s counsel Debabrata Roy told the court that the government has decided to hand over the Madan Tamang murder case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). So, the missing case of Nicole would be investigated by the CBI as well because he is one of the accused in the murder case. Roy added. The court, however, rejected the government’s plea and said that its requests for the CBI probe does not mention about the Central agency probing into Nicole missing case.

The Bench said that Roy was not cooperating with the court and directed the CID to reach a conclusion whether Nicole was dead or alive and whether he was in India or some foreign country.