Chennai: In the continuing twist and turn in the two most sensational cases in Tamil Nadu, the accused, both in the police service, have knocked at the doors of the Supreme Court seeking transfer of the trial outside the state. While the suspended Special DGP is charged with sexual harassment of a woman IPS officer, the other, Raghu Ganesh, a sub-inspector, is among the nine cops, facing trial in the case pertaining to the ghastly custodial murder of a father-son duo in Sathankulam.
Apprehensive of not getting a fair trial in the state, they have submitted in their plea that besides the media trial, the frequent intervention of the Madras High Court was prejudicial to the presumption that any person is 'innocent until proven guilty'. Progress in both cases was keenly watched by the public after the change of government, with the DMK taking over the reins.
The alleged sexual harassment of a young woman IPS officer, serving as the Superintendent of Police, in February this year and the custodial murder in June last has created a massive public outrage. In both instances, the Madras High Court had taken suo motu cognizance to ensure a fair probe. Further, the court also monitored the progress of the investigations and the trial.
The suspended Special DGP was accused of harassing the woman officer when both were on the security duty of the then Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami during the election campaign. He is further charged with attempting to prevent her from proceeding to Chennai to lodge a complaint with the DGP and the Home Secretary. Along with the accused top officer, the then Vilupuram SP, who physically stopped the woman IPS officer's vehicle at a toll plaza and tried to prevent her from proceeding to Chennai, was also suspended. The CB-CID took over the investigation and a 400-page charge sheet against the accused was filed before a trial court in Villupuram on July 29. Earlier, Justice Anand Venkatesh of Madras High Court had directed the trial court to complete the trial within six months - before December 20.
Also read: TN CBCID indicts suspended DGP for harassing woman IPS officer
In the Sathankulam case, P Jayaraj (59) and his son Bennicks (31) were taken to the police station after an altercation with the cops and tortured brutally for hours, leading to their death in the hospital. It resulted in a huge outcry over police high handedness, prompting the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court to take suo motu cognizance of the matter. Raghu Ganesh and eight other police personnel were charged with murder and the CBI which took over the case had filed the charge sheet before the trial court in Madurai.
Significantly, the plea for shifting the trial outside the state comes when investigations have been completed and the trial is on in the Sathankulam case while it is to commence in the sexual harassment case, which has a six-month deadline.
Both the Special DGP as well as sub-inspector Raghu Ganesh have identical prayers before the apex court. “A constitutional court need not monitor the case once the probe is complete and a charge sheet has been filed in a trial court. Continued monitoring even after that was a “blatant ignorance” of the Supreme Court judgment in the Sushila Devi case. The repeated orders of the High Court … has attached a stigma and amount to a punishment in itself,” reads the petition by the Special DGP. As such, he had sought that the trial is transferred to Nellore or anywhere outside Tamil Nadu.
In his petition, Raghu Ganesh submitted that he and the other co-accused policemen were physically attacked in the jail. “The case has generated a lot of publicity resulting in difficulties for the accused in a surcharged atmosphere. The High Court was actively monitoring the case and the case is pending for framing of charges. Therefore, the petitioner is apprehensive of not getting a fair trial in the court in Tamil Nadu. Hence, seeks shifting of the case to Thiruvananthapuram,” the petition read.
Only two cases have been shifted outside the state: One is the DMK leader and former Minister Tha Kiruttinan murder in which Karunanidhi's elder son MK Alagiri was an accused. The case was posted before a Chittoor court in Andhra Pradesh. The second is the Disproportionate Assets case against former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa in which she was convicted by a special court in Bengaluru.
Reacting to this development, senior counsel KM Vijayan said, “This is a strategic move to delay the inevitable for which there is space in our judicial system. At present, the system is tuned not towards absolute reasonableness in justice delivery but in providing accommodative justice. For anything that is prolonged loses interest. And any delay tends to dilute the monstrosity of the crime since public memory is short. It also gives a possibility to get over it.”
