MADURAI: Slamming the Sathankulam police personnel for not cooperating with the Kovilpatti Judicial Magistrate in the judicial inquiry conducted over the alleged custodial death of P Jeyaraj and his son Beniks-two traders - the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court, after expressing its displeasure, directed the Thoothukudi district collector Sandeep Nanduri to instruct revenue officials to take control of the police station for collecting the relevant documents.
A Division Bench of Justices PN Prakash and B Pugalendhi said they came to know about the lack of cooperation by the police personnel through the Principal District Judge of Thoothukudi who is closely monitoring the investigation. In an earlier order, they had suggested the magistrate to visit the places of occurrence, which included the police station, to collect clues and take photocopies of relevant documents. The magistrate was also permitted to get statements from the police personnel of Sathankulam police station about where the deceased were kept during the detention.
However, hearing about the police's lack of cooperation, the judges directed the collector to depute revenue officials to take control of the police station to enable the magistrate to collect the necessary documents.
The judges further directed the Additional Director of Forensic Sciences department to send a team of experts to collect materials from the station. They also granted liberty to utilise experts from Regional Forensic Sciences Laboratory if needed.
CBI probe
When the Additional Advocate General (AAG) K Chellapandian, appearing on behalf of the State government, sought permission from the court to transfer the investigation into the duo's death to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the judges said, "It is a policy decision of the government. We do not have a say in it."
However, in order to preserve the evidence till the procedures are completed, the judges directed the Thoothukudi Superintendent of Police and Deputy Superintendent of Police of Kovilpatti to hand over the case diaries of FIRs registered in connection with the incident to the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) so that the same can be handed over to the CBI.
Psychological counselling
The judges further directed the State government to continue the police wellbeing programme under which police personnel are given psychological counselling. "Because of few bad apples, we cannot demoralise the entire force," the judges said and added that the programme will be needed to ensure police personnel do not go "berserk" like this in the future.