MADURAI: Dispensing with the personal appearance of two Superintendents of Police from Kerala, the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Wednesday granted additional time to the officers to submit a report on a petition filed by six police personnel from Kerala seeking to quash a chargesheet filed by the Dindigul CB-CID in a custodial death case registered against them and two others in 2018.
The policemen, who filed the petition along with their informer, had produced a joint compromise memo stating that they entered into an amicable settlement with the wife and brother-in-law of the deceased Mokkaiyan.
According to sources, the petitioners had ventured into Tamil Nadu to investigate a narcotics case in 2017. During a search and seizure conducted by the policemen in Batlagundu in the night hours, Mokkaiyan had tried to flee and accidentally fell into a well and died. The case was transferred to the CB-CID in 2018.
However, claiming that they entered into a compromise with the family of the deceased, the petitioners have filed the above joint compromise memo and sought a direction to quash the chargesheet. In the previous hearing, it was alleged that the petitioners did not obtain proper permission from their higher officials to file the petition.
The additional public prosecutor representing the CB-CID also told the court that no official communication was received by the Tamil Nadu police regarding the above investigation conducted by the petitioners in TN in the course of which the deceased had died.
Hearing this, Justice L Victoria Gowri had suo motu impleaded the SP Narcotics Wing, Alappuzha and SP Kottayam and directed them to file a report in person on the above allegations.
When the case was heard again on Wednesday, only the Alappuzha SP was present. The additional public prosecutor who represented him informed the court that the report sought was ready, but he needed some more time to file it, as it was not in the prescribed format. He also requested the court to dispense with the personal appearance of the two officers. Acceding to the requests, the judge adjourned the case to February 25.