MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Monday directed the Vilathikulam DSP to take over the investigation into the murder of 17-year-old girl from Thoothukudi. A division bench of Justices N Sathish Kumar and M Jothiraman issued the direction while hearing a public interest litigation filed by advocate K Mareeshwari seeking a transfer of the investigation to the CBI.
Pursuant to the court’s earlier order, the Thoothukudi SP filed a status report and case diary before the bench on Monday. The state informed the court that the inspector of the Vilathikulam All Women Police Station and a special sub-inspector of the Kulathur police station have been placed under suspension. Departmental proceedings would also be initiated against them, it said.
A postmortem was conducted on the deceased girl and DNA samples collected from the victim and five suspects have been sent to the regional forensic lab for analysis. The state also submitted that police are carrying out technical analysis of mobile phones and other digital data, besides examining CCTV footage from the surrounding areas. CCTV mapping has been undertaken to trace the movement of the suspects.
The investigation is currently being carried out by the inspector of the Kulathur police station under the supervision of the Thoothukudi SP. The state further submitted that the victim’s parents have not been cooperating with the police in recording their statements.
After hearing the submissions, the bench directed the Vilathikulam DSP to investigate the case and record the audio-video statements of the girl’s parents. The court also directed the parents to cooperate with the investigation. It ordered the police to file another status report on the progress of the case by April 2 and adjourned the hearing.