In a ‘not-so-common’ kind of judgement, the Madras High Court Bench here on Friday lamented that the departed soul of a young woman could not get justice due to the “inefficiency and ugly mechanism” adopted by Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID) as well as the Madurai city police in investigating the nature of her death.
Dismissing a State appeal filed by the CB-CID challenging the acquittal of the woman’s husband and mother from the charge of having murdered her, a Division Bench of Justice A. Selvam and Justice T. Mathivanan said: “The filing of this appeal is a futile exercise. The State, represented by the CB-CID, has filed this appeal knowing pretty well that it is not a fit case to be appealed.
The Bench pointed out that it was Sambasivam (name changed), father of the deceased, who had lodged a complaint with a Sub-Inspector at the S.S. Colony police station here on March 2, 2006, claiming that his married daughter had committed suicide by hanging since she was suffering from acute stomach pain. The SI registered a First Information Report under Section 174 (duty of the police to enquire and report on suicide) of the Code of Criminal Procedure and visited the spot without informing the Inspector. He also did not request an executive magistrate to conduct an inquest.
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The SIsent the body to the Government Rajaji Hospital for post-mortem before informing his higher officials. Later, he rushed to the hospital for conducting an inquest and altered the legal provision under which the FIR had been booked to Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code.
Subsequently, the then Inspector probed the matter and concluded that the victim had been killed by none other than her father, the complainant , since he was a womaniser who did not spare even his daughter. The officer also recovered a skipping rope, used to strangulate the victim, reportedly on the basis of the information provided by the arrestee. However, unsatisfied with the investigation, the victim’s husband approached the High Court in December 2006 and obtained an order for a CB-CID probe. After investigation, the CB-CID sleuths let off the victim’s father and laid a charge sheet against her husband and mother accusing them of murdering the woman since she came to know about their illicit relationship.
“Departed soul of victim could not get justice due to ‘inefficient’ investigation”