Court also ordered the state government to pay an interim compensation of Rs 2 lakh to the victim
CBI to probe the charges of custodial torture and rape of a middle-aged woman accused of murder in Udumalpet police station in Tiruppur district. (Photo: DC/File)
Chennai: The Madras high court on Wednesday 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 Tiruppur district.
Ordering the state government to pay an interim compensation of Rs 2 lakh to the victim, Chitra (49), Justice V. Ramasubramanian said it would “not be fair and proper to entrust the investigation at the hands of the state police” as the entire hierarchy from the home secretary and director general of police down to the district SP had decided to defend the concerned inspector and a few constables of Udumalpet station.
He also rejected the plea from the state officials to entrust the probe to the RDO considering the circumstances of the case. “There is enough material to warrant the registration of a FIR, even without a fact-finding mission either by the judicial magistrate or by the RDO”, said the judge while justifying his decision to entrust the case to the CBI and asking the central agency to submit its report within three months.
He was passing orders on a writ petition from P. Rajakumari seeking CBI probe into the brutal torture of her mother Chitra after implicating her in the murder of her landlady at Udumalpet on August 9.
Her mother was hung by her feet, naked but for inner garments, and beaten up savagely by seven police personnel in the station during August 10-13 for forcing her to sign a confession statement.
Also, a lathi was inserted into her private parts. She was ‘formally’ arrested on August 14, Rajakumari had alleged in her petition.
The humane judge had about 20 days back ordered that Chitra, remanded in the Coimbatore central jail, be produced before him on September 5. In an interim order that day, he said the woman “is not even able to walk” and she must be immediately shifted to the Omanthurar government multi super specialty hospital for treatment. Barring the women escorts from the TN special police, no police persons should be allowed to meet her, he had said.
In his present order, Justice Ramasubramanian directed the Joint Director of CBI to “immediately” record Chitra’s statement and “register a FIR for various offences under the relevant provisions of law”.
Also, the probe should be done by an officer not below the rank of deputy commissioner of police in the CBI, who should take possession of all the medical records of Chitra in the Udumalpet government hospital and the Coimbatore CMC hospital, besides the records of the medical officer of the prison. The records of the Omandurar hospital could be collected from his court, said the judge, adding that the investigating officer “shall also check the call records of all the mobile phones of all police personnel of the Udumalpet police to find out the date on which Chitra was taken into custody”.
The judge said upon completion of the trial and in the event of conviction, Chitra would be “at liberty to proceed against the erring officers for compensation and it will be open to the state at that time to recover the amount paid by them as per this order, from those responsible”.
Also, it was open to the government to place the concerned officials under suspension and initiate departmental action once a FIR was registered against them. If the CBI officer desired further medical examination of Chitra, that could be done at the Omandurar hospital. “Thereafter, she may be discharged and sent back home or to the central prison, depending upon the fate of her bail petition, the judge said.
( Source : dc )
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