Hyderabad, June 25 -- Nearly four years after the body of a young Scheduled Tribe (ST) law graduate was fished out of a canal in Telangana, the High Court has ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to take over the case, citing grave lapses and a reasonable apprehension of bias in the probes conducted by local police and the CID.

The Telangana High Court, in its order, directed the CBI to register a fresh case and investigate all angles, including murder, criminal conspiracy, destruction of evidence and caste-based motives under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, preferably within six months.

The case pertains to the death of 22-year-old Dharawath Nikhil, a law graduate from Suryapet, whose body was recovered from a Na...