The Madras High Court on Wednesday ordered a CB-CID probe into how a juvenile sustained a bullet injury in a city police station on January 7, saying that the police version of the incident was not convincing.
A Division Bench of Justices S. Rajeswaran and P.N. Prakash passed the order on a habeas corpus petition filed by the boy’s mother.
The court said as the RDO, the State Human Rights Commission and the Juvenile Justice Board were probing the matter, it might not be necessary to order an inquiry by a sessions judge as sought by R. Sankarasubbu, counsel for the petitioner.
“The explanation offered by Pushparaj, the then Inspector, that a bullet from his revolver had hit the detenu unexpectedly does not cut ice with us. It sounds very incredible.” Instead of recording the boy’s statement and registering a case, the police obtained a statement from the then Sub-Inspector.
The Bench said that in view of the serious injury, the boy would not have been in a position to give any statement immediately for registering a First Information Report. But after he recovered, the police made no efforts to record his version. It said the investigation should not be continued by the Inspector of the same station and transferred it to the CB-CID.
