MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court recently directed the Inspector General of Police (South Zone) to take steps to find out the real motive behind the Nanguneri double murder case, in which a bike-borne gang indiscriminately attacked villagers, killing an SC man with disability and a migrant worker from Odisha, on March 2.
Dissatisfied with the probe conducted by the Nanguneri police, Justice B Pugalendhi directed the IGP to look into the issue and if necessary, constitute a special team to properly investigate the case. The direction was issued while allowing an appeal seeking bail, filed by one of the suspects, Ganesh Pandy, who was accused of habouring the attackers.
The judge observed that he had not come across such a heinous occurrence and pointed out that the incident took place two weeks prior to the Assembly poll notification and was projected as if there was no law and order in the state.
The incident would also have certainly caused some deterrence to the migrant workers in the state. But the investigation has been conducted in a casual manner and even the reasons projected by the probe agency are farfetched and illogical, he added.
He noted that the police cited two motives for the incident — that the attack was in retaliation to a 2022 murder and that it was due to a dispute over a social media comment. But the deceased and injured are in no way associated with these incidents, the judge highlighted.
The investigation officer however claimed in the final report that the accused persons attacked the deceased and the injured witnesses under the impression that they belonged to SC, he added.
The judge indicated several other defects in the case, including lack of probe into nexus between the past incidents and the attack, failure to identify/prove the ownership of the phones recovered from Pandy, among others.
Though some of the charges were altered after the intervention of the deputy director of prosecution, the judge questioned why the higher officers like the IGP, DIG or SP did not monitor the probe.
