CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Tuesday ordered a CBI probe into the alleged honour killing of a teenaged girl, who had eloped with a Dalit youth. Justice V Ramasubramanian transferred the case to the CBI, while passing interim orders on a petition from Dilip Kumar of Polipatti village in Usilampatti taluk in Madurai district. He also pulled up the Usilampatti and Vathlagundu police for their shabby investigation and imposed a cost of `25,000 on the police. The State must pay the sum to Dilip Kumar within eight weeks, he said.
It all began two years ago when Dilip, a driver by profession, fell in love with Vimaladevi, who belongs to a backward class community. As her parents attempted to give her in marriage to another person, they eloped and got married at a temple in Vridhachalam on July 22 last. Fearing trouble from the girl’s parents, they went to Palakkad in Kerala and surrendered before the Pattambi police. The girl’s family members went to Pattambi police station and took custody of the couple after giving an assurance that they will bring them back once the enquiry is completed on their complaint with the Usilampatti Police. However, Vimaladevi died under mysterious circumstances. The body was hurriedly cremated by pouring kerosene on it, the petitioner alleged.
“In the light of the facts pleaded and disclosed from the files, it is clear, at least prima facie, that the death of Vimaladevi is a case of honour killing,’’ the judge observed. But the investigation team had not brought this out “deliberately”. On the other hand the team had manipulated the records and come out with different stories so as to save their own officers. ‘’Hence I am of the opinion that the investigation … cannot be left in the hands of the officers under the TN Director General of Police,’’ the judge said.
The judge also noted that the probe did not inspire confidence among the victims. The investigating officer himself proceeded on the pre-determined theory that it was a case of suicide and not homicide. There was every reason to believe that the local police both at Usilampatti and Vathlagundu, where Sub Inspector Anandhi worked, had clearly laid a blueprint to get the girl separated from Dilip and to hand over her to her parents. It was clear from the records that the deceased was with Dilip for six days and the police had failed to give protection to the two consenting adults in getting married by crossing the caste boundary.
The conduct of the police attached to the two stations was not satisfactory, the judge said and added they did not handle the case with the sensitivity it required. Further, the conduct of Anandhi has to be probed. Similarly the role of the Station House Officer of the Usilampatti Town Police at that time will also have to be probed, the judge said and directed the DGP to appoint an officer in the rank of Inspector General of Police to conduct a preliminary investigation on the conduct of the two officers in the circumstances that led to the death of Vimaladevi and submit a report within eight weeks.