CHENNAI: Lambasting the Chennai City police for suppressing a politician’s involvement in a 2012 murder, the Madras High Court strongly censured its investigation and directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe the case afresh.
Justice S Nagamuthu passed the order on Thursday based on a petition filed by S Siva, the father of the victim S Bhuvaneshwaran. The court observed that despite the allegations of the victim’s family on the involvement of former DMK MLA B Ranganathan, the chargesheet filed by the police had no mention about him.
Bhuvaneshwaran was intercepted by an armed gang at Kambar Nagar in Kolathur on January 10, 2012 and brutally murdered with sharp weapons in front of his three-year-old daughter. Bhuvaneshwaran’s family has been alleging that the hooligans were instigated by Ranganathan, who was MLA of Villivakkam constituency between 2006 and 2011. Bhuvaneshwaran and Ranganathan had a long-standing dispute over a property and this was suspected to be the motive behind the murder.
However, investigations by the Kolathur police did not mention anything about Ranganathan’s role. The final chargesheet filed by Kolathur Inspector Suresh Kumar before a magistrate court on March 30, 2012 listed a few others as accused in the case. Criticising the police investigations, Justice S Nagamuthu observed that the chargesheet had been filed only on the basis of inadmissible confessions made by the accused persons and there was no material even to make out a prima facie case.
“It is unfortunate that though the complaint made by the petitioner has a mention of the possible involvement of former MLA Ranganathan, it has been omitted in the final report (by police). It appears that an attempt has been made to safeguard the interest of some people who are really involved in the crime,” the court order said.
The court also set aside the chargesheet filed by the Chennai City police and transferred investigation into the case to the CBI.
The court also directed the Kolathur Police Inspector to hand over case diary to the Joint Director, CBI, Chennai within seven days. The CBI is also directed to expedite the investigations and file the final report preferably within six months, it added.