Tanjavur Girl's Suicide: Madras High Court Reserves Order On Plea For CBI Probe

In a petition filed for transfer of investigation pertaining to the suicide of a 17-year-old girl, the Madurai bench of Madras High Court on Friday reserved the orders after hearing parties at length.The petition, filed by the father of the deceased girl, originally sought for investigation by the CB-CID. Today, the petitioner's counsel made an oral plea for CBI investigation, expressing lack of confidence confidence with the state police. The single-judge bench of Justice G.R Swaminathan also heard the counsel appearing for the intervenor School, Senior Advocate Fr. Xavier Arulraj.At the outset, the Additional Public Prosecutor for the state informed the court that Muthuvel, who shot the video of the girl making statements, is not cooperating with the investigation. Though he handed over the mobile phone to the investigation agency on 25th January as per the court order, he has refused to throw light into the number of videos recorded and the recipients of video so recorded. The prosecutor also remarked in the beginning that the deceased had made a phone call to a helpline two years back due to the ill-treatment meted out to the child by her parents. The prosecutor submitted that 63 witnesses have been examined so far to ensure a comprehensive and fair investigation.Before the counsel for the petitioner commenced their arguments, the court also agreed to hear the Senior Counsel appearing on behalf of the School Management accused of attempting to convert the deceased girl child. Arguments RaisedFor The Petitioner Advocate M. Karthikeya Venkitachalapathy, appearing for the petitioner, took the court through the timeline of events before making his arguments. He submitted that the girl child has repeatedly complained about the harassment by the hostel warden. According to the petitioner, she was assigned random tasks and forced to do other works including accounting which might have affected her studies.Another aspect raised by the counsel was about the availability of a poison in the hall of hostel premises, within the reach of minor children. He went on to note that the video recorded by Muthuvel, in the presence of the girl child's mother, must be construed as direct evidence and put to use by the investigating agency. He argued that the principle of res gestae would apply to the facts of the case and the veracity of the statements made by the girl child in the video cannot be questioned.He also expressed the dissatisfaction of the petitioner about the alleged press statement given by the Superintendent of Police dismissing any angle of religious conversion in the FIR. Even the Education Minister disregarded the video evidence. The counsel also contended dahat the complaint was registered only after a mass agitation before the SP's office on 20th January.Moving on, the counsel further stated that the dying declaration given to the Magistrate was publicised by unknown persons. He observed that there are only two possibilities. Since the dying declaration was in a sealed cover, it would not have been published from the court. The remaining possibility would be the investigating police deliberately leaking the dying declaration to News Channels and News Papers. This is quite contrary to the Supreme Court guidelines about the secrecy of dying declaration, the counsel added.The petitioner also contended that a third video clip without any allegations about religious conversion, in addition to the two video clips already available in social media, was circulated. According to Venkitachalapathy, this was after the mobile phone was handed over to the Police by Muthuvel. The petitioner counsel alleged that this would have occurred only if the police officials are directly involved.Citing all these instances, the petitoner counsel concluded that they have lost faith in the current investigation, and the facts and circumstances of the case warrants the transfer of investigation to CBI.While concluding, the petitioner also drew the court's attention to the 2006 suicide case of a girl child called Sukanya. The petitioner pointed out that proper investigation which was conducted after intervention by social activists revealed that she was gang-raped and thrown into a well." It is the same party at the helm of the state then and now", commented the counsel. This was met with harsh criticism by the public prosecutor who stated that the case must be heard on merits and not on political statements.For The StateFirstly, the Prosecutor requested the court to peruse the petition of the girl child's father. He pointed out that the petition contains only four paragraphs, out of which the third paragraph makes accusations about the press statement made by the police. The fourth paragraph seeks transfer of investigation.Referring to the status report filed by the state, the prosecutor submitted that the girl was hospitalized first on January 9. It was only after the girl was admitted to Tanjavur Medical College...

Tanjavur Girl's Suicide: Madras High Court Reserves Order On Plea For CBI Probe

Sebin James

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