HM activist murder case: Madras HC quashes order refusing police custody of accused

Chennai: The Madras high court has set aside an order of the special judge for NIA cases/sessions court for exclusive trial of bomb blast cases in Poonamallee, refusing police custody of an accused in a Hindu Munnani activist murder case.

A division bench comprising Justices M. Venugopal and R. Hemalathaa set aside an order of the special judge dated March 16, 2018, while allowing an appeal from the National Investigation Agency, Hyderabad camp, at Chennai.

The Thudiyalur police had arrested Mubarak alias Mohammed Mubarak and another in connection with the murder of Sasikumar, district spokesperson, Hindu Munnan, in Coimbatore district.

The case which was being investigated by the CBCID was transferred to the NIA in January 2018. When the NIA filed a petition seeking police custody of Mubarak, the special court in Poonamallee dismissed it. Aggrieved, the NIA filed the present appeal.

The bench said the order passed by the special court for NIA cases substantially affects the rights of the agency especially when the matter was at the investigation stage in so far the accused was concerned and hence the impugned order resulting in dismissal of the petition would not be an Interlocutory order.

Viewed in that perspective, the present appeal preferred by the appellant as against the order dated March 16 was perfectly maintainable under the National Investigation Act.

In view of the upshot, this court comes to a resultant conclusion that the view taken by the special judge for NIA cases, was not a legally tenable one. As such, this court interferes with the order passed by the special judge and set aside the same, the bench added.

The bench directed the special judge to restore the matter back to his file and pass necessary orders in a fair, just, unbiased and dispassionate manner, untrammeled and uninfluenced with any of the observations made by this court in this appeal.