Technical tangle won’t hamper CBI probe into custodial deaths

CHENNAI: The CBI investigation into the

Sathankulam

custodial torture and deaths has got entangled in some technicalities, but that won’t stop the Central agency.

Highly placed sources in the Central agency in Delhi said CBI has sought legal opinion on whether there should be separate notifications from the state and central governments for the agency to take over the two

CB-CID

cases or whether it could go ahead with the investigation based on the orders of the Madras high court.

“One of our senior officers reached Chennai on Wednesday. He will visit Tuticorin CB-CID office on Friday. Other members of the team will join him soon,” said an official.

Based on the state and central notifications, the CBI, as of now, has taken over two FIRs registered by the Kovilpatti east

police

station regarding the deaths of P

Jeyaraj

and his son J

Beniks

of Sathankulam in judicial

custody

. They have been registered as cases of suspicious death under Section 176 (1-A) (1) of the CrPc based on complaints from Kovilpatti jail superintendent M Shanker. The CBI FIR also refers to suspected offences like illegal detention, murders and destruction of evidence.

The investigation into the custodial deaths, however, has progressed much beyond that as the CB-CID – which was given charge of investigation as an interim measure by the high court — has registered murder cases under Sections 302 and 304 of the IPC against 10 policemen under suspension, including former inspector of Sathankulam, Sridhar, and SIs Balakrishnan and Raghu Ganesh. All the 10 cops were on duty at the Sathankulam police station on June 19 night, when Jeyaraj and Beniks were tortured in police custody.

“In case the legal opinion says we have to secure fresh notifications from the state and central governments, Tamil Nadu will have to issue fresh

notification

under Section 6 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, under which the CBI is set up, and the Centre will have to issue yet another notification under Section 5 of the Act to hand over the two CB-CID cases to us,” said the official. “But that does not mean our investigation is going to stop for the time being. We will pursue the probe we have already started. Also, since we have an HC order saying till the CBI takes over the case CB-CID can do the investigation, we are harping on it at present. Our officials will take over the case documents from the CB-CID on Friday to avoid any further delay in probe. If there is a need, we will ask for fresh notifications from the two governments to plug all loopholes,” said the official.