The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Tuesday initiated suo motu proceedings in the alleged Avaniapuram custodial death case.
A 22-year-old youth, M. Balamurugan, who sustained injuries in police custody, later died at Government Rajaji Hospital in October last.
The case took a turn when the father of the deceased, P. Muthukaruppan, who had earlier sought a CBI probe into the incident, decided to withdraw his petition.
Advocate Henri Tiphagne, who had represented the petitioner pro bono, wrote to the High Court indicating lacunas in the investigation.
He also alleged that the father had withdrawn the petition because of threat from local police and that the parents were being coerced not to depose against the police officers involved in the incident.
A Division Bench of Justices M. Duraiswamy and T. Ravindran directed the State to file a counter in the case and adjourned the hearing by four weeks. During the course of the hearing, the State submitted that the investigation in the case was on.
It was said that Balamurugan and his associates were arrested by the police for allegedly kidnapping a youth and demanding money from the youth’s parents.
A case was registered against them. Later, the parents of Balamurugan were informed that their son was admitted to GRH with injuries.
The 22-year-old succumbed to injuries at the hospital. His parents alleged custodial death and moved the High Court Bench seeking a probe into the case.
The court ordered a post-mortem by a senior doctor and also directed that the CCTV footage at the Avaniapuram police station be preserved.
However, following a change of vakalat, the court was informed that the father of the deceased, who was the petitioner in the case, wanted to withdraw his petition.
