Directing the State police to “learn a lesson” from the reported murder of a 24-year-old woman from Tirunelveli due to non registration of a complaint of abduction lodged by her father in September last, the Madras High Court Bench here on Thursday stressed the need for registering First Information Reports (FIR) irrespective of territorial jurisdiction.
A Division Bench of Justices S. Nagamuthu and M.V. Muralidaran passed the order on a habeas corpus petition filed by C. Gnanaiah (50) of Sankarankoil Taluk in Tirunelveli district on August 10 this year seeking a direction to Tirunelveli police to save his daughter G. Anbu Stella, a lab technician, from the clutches of a Pastor Millan (50) of Tharuvai in Tirunelveli district.
Enquiries made by the judges with R. Thirugnanam, Commissioner of Police, Tirunelveli city, and V. Vikraman, Superintendent of Police, Tirunelveli, revealed that the petitioner had lodged a complaint with the office of Tirunelveli Deputy Inspector General of Police on September 14, 2015 itself and it was forwarded to the SP’s office the same day.
The SP, in turn, forwarded the complaint to the Inspector of Kuruvikulam Police Station, who, on November 2. reported that the complaint was sent to Tirunelveli city police on the ground of jurisdiction. Thereafter, the Commissioner’s office forwarded the complaint to Inspector of Palayamkottai police station and the latter sent it to Kanniyakumari police.
Even as the complaint was being tossed from one police station to another, the woman’’s father filed the HCP and it was only after the court fixed an ultimatum to crack the case, the police arrested the wife of the Pastor on Tuesday and recorded a confession that she and her husband had smothered Ms. Stella to death and set fire to the body on January 4.
It was also ascertained that Kaveripattinam police in Krishnagiri district had recovered the body and preserved the femur bone and skull with which DNA test could be conducted now to ascertain the identity of the deceased.
Mr. Vikraman also told the judges that the physically challenged Pastor, arrested on Sunday, was not cooperating with the investigation and got admitted to a government hospital complaining of chest pain. The SP accused the pastor of being a habitual offender who had cheated about 30 women so far by promising government jobs and married seven of them.
After recording his submissions, the judges said the life of the 24-year-old woman could have been saved had the police promptly registered a FIR and transferred it to the jurisdictional police station for investigation without tossing the complaint from one station to another.
“Now what do we tell this poor petitioner who is standing before us with folded hands and tears in his eyes. We cannot tell him that his daughter is dead because it is yet to be proved conclusively and we cannot also assure him that she will be found soon. Your policemen have put the court in a predicament,” Mr. Justice Nagamuthu told the SP.
“Lost faith in police”
Later, observing that they had lost faith in the local police, the Bench transferred the investigation in the murder case pending with Kaveripattinam police to the Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID) and directed it to file a report by November 14 with a concrete statement as to whether the woman was dead or alive.
In the meantime, Tirunelveli SP was directed to pursue another woman- harassment complaint pending against the pastor before the Sankarankoil police as well as the charge of him having cheated 28 other women.
