The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Monday reserved its order in the public interest litigation petition filed by the All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) that sought a direction to transfer the investigation in the Nirmala Devi audio tape case from the CB-CID to CBI.
A Division Bench of Justice M. Sathyanarayanan and B. Pugalendhi reserved the order after hearing the final submissions made by the respective counsels. Also, the State had sought a direction to vacate the stay on the trial proceedings pending before a lower court in Srivilliputhur.
The public interest litigation petition filed by P. Suganthi, general secretary of AIDWA, said that the case involved a crime that was not ordinary. She said that despite several laws and conditions, human trafficking continued.
The petitioner contended that punishing the tail of the network would not uproot this social evil. Unless the heads were caught, prosecuted and punished, the evils could not be stopped, she said and sought a direction to transfer the investigation from the CB-CID to the CBI.
All the three accused in the audio tape case - Nirmala Devi, V. Murugan and S. Karuppasamy - are currently out on bail. The incident came to light after an audio clip was leaked, in which Nirmala Devi was heard trying to convince a few girl students of Devanga Arts College to provide certain favours in return for academic progression and financial gain.
Meanwhile, Nirmala Devi, present before the lower court in Srivilliputhur for procedural formalities, reportedly squatted and closed her eyes as if she were in a trance on the court premises. However, on being repeatedly told to leave the premises, she spoke incoherently before leaving the court premises.
