Court bars Vedaranyam police from probing murder after charges of bias

Justice G K Ilanthiraiyan on Thursday granted the injunction while entertaining a criminal original petition filed by GS Arumugham, a retired civil judge and the uncle of the woman. The judge has also ordered notice to the Vedaranyam police inspector and the deputy superintendent of police, returnable on June 4.

The petitioner had submitted that his close relative, Soundarya, was married to one Ashok of Agasthiyampalli village in 2013.

Ashok, allegedly a habitual drinker, abused and torturedher demanding more dowry. After one such incident in the night of December 6, 2018, he hit her severely and she was declared brought dead by the doctors at a nearby hospital the next day afternoon. The same day, her body was cremated in a hasty manner, without performing autopsy, despite repeated pleas from the relatives to destroy the evidence of murder.

The petitioner said that he sent his wife to lodge complaint to the police. At that juncture, Minister Manian came to him and asked him not to precipitate which he refused to heed.

Following a great amount of pressure, the police finally registered a case, that too after diluting the veracity of the offences. This resulted in Ashok getting advance bail from the High Court. Arumugham contended that the police had deliberately failed to include the offence under Section 304-B of the IPC (homicide) to protect Ashok and his parents, who are influential in the area. Even the report submitted by the Sub-Divisional Magistrate, who had conducted the inquest, stated in clear terms that Soundarya’s death was not natural and did not rule out homicide.

The local police were hastening up the process of filing the final report (charge-sheet) after a perfunctory and unfair investigation, he contended, and sought to stay the investigation by Vedaranyam police, and transfer the matter to the CB CID.