Madras High Court refuses to stay order on CBI probe

Chennai: The Madras high court has declined to stay the operation of a single judge order which directed the CBI to probe the charges of custodial torture and rape of a middle-aged woman accused of murder in Udumalpet police station, in Tirupur district.

A specially constituted division bench, comprising justices S. Vaidyanathan and R. Mahadevan, before whom the appeal filed by additional director general of police (prisons), the DGP and home secretary, challenging the single judge’s order, came up for hearing, ordered notice to P. Rajakumari, daughter of the victim.

Originally on a petition from Rajakumari, seeking a CBI probe into the brutal torture of her mother Chitra (name changed) after implicating her in the murder of her landlady at Udumalpet on August 9, Justice V. Ramasubramanian had, on September 24, ordered a CBI probe into the charges of custodial torture and rape and directed the state government to pay an interim compensation of Rs 2 lakh to the victim.

Advocate general A.L. Somayaji submitted that Chitra was a murder accused and did not make any allegation regarding torture before the magistrate. It was not open for her to seek a change of investigation. In the appeal, the authorities submitted that there was absolutely no necessity for a CBI probe when the police authorities and other state machinery were agreeing for an enquiry by the executive magistrate under the police standing order.

The single judge erred in arriving at the conclusion that it would not be fair or proper to entrust the investigation in the hands of the state police. The entrusting of the investigation to CBI by the single judge was only on highly tenuous and flimsy material. The accused had suffered minor injuries and there were no injuries found on her genitalia, they added.

The bench orally said it did not want to interfere now. It would admit the appeal and let them file a counter-affidavit. It posted to October 8 further hearing of the appeal.