Provide facilities in prison to videograph Ramkumar: Madras HC
Police arrested Ramkumar on July 2 in connection with the murder of Swathi at the Nungambakkam railway station on June 24.
Chennai: The Madras high court on Thursday directed the Superintendent of Prisons, Puzhal, to provide necessary facilities at Puzhal prison itself for the investigating officer to take videograph, photograph and other measurements of the suspect Ramkumar, arrested in connection with the murder of techie Swathi at the Nungambakkam railway station on June 24.
Passing orders on a petition filed by Ramkumar, Justice P.N.Prakash also directed Ramkumar to allow his measurements/photograph/videograph to be taken by the investigating officer. Thereafter, the investigating officer is directed to produce the materials before the XIV Metropolitan Magistrate, Egmore, for sending the same to the forensic experts for their opinion and report, the judge added.
The police arrested Ramkumar on July 2 in connection with the murder of Swathi. Prior to the arrest of Ramkumar, the police had seized the CCTV footage and had submitted the same to XIV Metropolitan Magistrate, Egmore. The police wanted to ascertain as to whether Ramkumar was the person who was found in CCTV footage. Therefore, they sought the opinion of forensic experts, who have advised the police that they need the CCTV footage of Ramkumar for forensic comparison with the available CCTV footage.
Under such circumstances, the police filed a petition for permission from the court to videograph and photograph Ramkumar and the XIV MM allowed the petition. Aggrieved, Ramkumar filed the present petition. Ramkumar’s counsel P. Ramraj contended that the order of the magistrate directing that Ramkumar should be taken to the place near Nungambakkam railway station and videographed was against law.
Additional advocate-general C.Manishankar conceded that the portion of the order directing Ramkumar to be taken to the place near Nungambakkam railway station and videographed was not sustainable and prayed for modification of the order. The judge said it was not necessary to take Ramkumar near the place of occurrence for making him re-enact the crime.