High Court raps police for ‘inaction’ in murder case
Special Correspondent
“People will lose faith in the criminal justice system”
CHENNAI: Slamming the police for their inaction in a case of “daylight murder” committed during the Assembly polls in May 2006, the Madras High Court has declined to grant anticipatory bail to four accused persons.
Justice M. Jeyapaul, pointing out that Muruganandham was hacked to death by a mob on May 8, 2006 near Tindivanam, said that even after a year and four months the police had not cared to investigate and take appropriate action in the matter. He cautioned, “If this is the state of affairs in a matter of investigation, then the public at large will definitely lose faith in the criminal justice system.”
Directing the Rosanai police in Tindivanam to investigate the case and file a chargesheet in a “short while,” Mr. Justice Jeyapaul said: “The case diary speaks volumes about the inaction on the part of the police…The police have wantonly slept over the matter in spite of the fact that sufficient clue is found in the First Information Report about the role of the accused.” The police had not done a proper job for reasons best known to them, he said.
He then dismissed the anticipatory bail pleas of N.R. Raghu and three others in the case.
Muruganandham, a relative of former AIADMK Minister C.V. Shanmugam, was hacked to death following poll-related violence on May 8, 2006. The case, citing a total of 15 persons as suspects, was registered the next day.
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