MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Wednesday granted interim stay on the portion of the order passed by the trial court, which directed the CB-CID to continue the investigation and file supplementary final report against three police personnel who aided four accused cops to destroy the evidence in the death of a 17-year-old boy due to custodial torture by the police personnel of SS Colony police station in Madurai in 2019.
Justice Sunder Mohan passed the order while hearing a petition filed by the CB-CID challenging the order passed by the V Additional District and Sessions Court in Madurai. It also stayed the portion of the trial court order that directed disciplinary action against the first investigating officer for shoddy investigation and against two government doctors for lapses and violations of rules.
In September, the trial court convicted and sentenced four cops — inspector S Alexraj (55), special sub-inspector R Ravichandran (61), head constable S Ravichandran (55), and grade 1 constable C Satheesh Kumar (38) — to undergo 11 years of rigorous imprisonment. It also directed the CB-CID officials to continue the probe and file a supplementary chargesheet against three police personnel — ex-inspector M Arunachalam, ex-SI P Kannan, and retired SI K Premchandran — as accused in the case, since they aided the four accused to destroy the evidence.
Karthick (17), a poclain operator, was taken to custody on January 13, 2019, regarding a burglary of 23.5-sovereign gold jewellery at the home of one Kalyanasundaram. Karthick was subjected to physical torture for three days and was admitted to the Government Rajaji Hospital (GRH) on January 18, 2019. It was found that he had multiple external injuries all over his body, and his kidney was damaged due to the assault. Despite treatment, he succumbed to his injuries on January 24, 2019.