The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Court directive to Tirunelveli police

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 30, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Court directive to Tirunelveli police

Staff Reporter

MADURAI: The Madras High Court Bench here on Thursday directed the Tirunelveli police to facilitate extension of the remand period of N.G. Shanmuga Pandi and his brother N.G. Muthukrishnan through video-conferencing.

Justice M. Chockalingam passed the orders on a writ petition filed by Shanmuga Pandi’s wife, who alleged that the police planned to gun down the brothers in a fake encounter while transferring them from the Central Prison here to Judicial Magistrate-III court in Tirunelveli.

Earlier, during arguments, the Judge said such an apprehension in the mind of people reflected badly on the entire police force.

“Police should erase the impression that they will kill anybody, anytime.” See, a hapless lady has been forced to approach this court,” he told the government advocate.

Word of caution

He also cautioned that the orders passed in the present petition should not set a bad precedent following which every other criminal in the State would seek remand extension through video-conferencing.

“Imagine, what will happen if we set such a precedent,” the Judge asked the petitioner’s counsel.

To this, counsel Rupert J. Barnabas, assisted by M. Maharaja, said there was no other way to ensure the safety of the brothers.

Encounter death

Recalling the encounter death of Manalmedu Sankar, an anti-social, on February 6, the lawyer said he was shot dead despite Supreme Court orders to ensure that no untoward incident took place while transferring him to the local courts.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu