MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Wednesday directed the Nagercoil Project Implementation Unit (PIU) of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to produce the CCTV footage recorded in the stretch between Tirunelveli and Seevalaperi from 12 noon to 7 pm on July 27, 2025 – the day on which an IT employee C Kavin Selvaganesh was murdered by caste Hindu youth S Surjith for allegedly being in a relationship with his sister.
Justice L Victoria Gowri gave the direction while hearing the petitions filed by co-accused K Saravanan, Surjith’s father and K Jayapal, Surjith’s cousin, seeking direction to quash the chargesheet filed by CBCID in the case.
According to the prosecution, the petitioners had conspired with Surjith and aided him in committing the murder and destroying the evidence, including the murder weapon, mobile phone, and two-wheeler number plate, among others. There was a specific allegation that Saravanan and his wife Krishnakumari met Surjith and had arranged for him to go to Jayapal’s quarry in Pappankulam, where the evidence was destroyed with Jayapal’s help, it added.
However, petitioners denied the allegations and claimed that the place of occurrence was over 20km away from the quarry in question and there are more than 20 CCTV cameras along the route. The investigation agency deliberately failed to obtain CCTV footage which, if secured, would be able to show whether Saravanan and Jayapal met Surjith after the incident.
Saravanan claimed that he was not at the hiding spot and in fact, he was the one who handed over Surjith to police officers on the highway. Jayapal claimed that he came to know about the incident only after Surjith, ‘on his own’, came to the quarry and there was no prior communication between them to prove that he sheltered Surjith.