The Madras High Court on Tuesday ordered a CBI investigation into the death of a former junior engineer of the Telecommunication Department, who died in police firing at Marandahally in Dharmapuri district in 2000.
A Division Bench of Justices Elipe Dharma Rao and M.Venugopal directed the agency to investigate the case and file the final report before the court concerned within six months. Originally, Nirmala, an Assistant Professor in Law in Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, filed a writ petition stating her husband K. Ravinder was “done to death in a fake encounter” on January 10, 2000 by the Tamil Nadu Police. She sought a direction to the authorities to register a case against the police personnel concerned and transfer the probe to the CBI.
“Police excesses”
She submitted that her husband was honest and was fighting against corruption. After resigning from the Telecom Department, he was working for the poor and had exposed “police excesses”.
In the counter, the authorities stated that Ravinder, after developing contacts with the People's War Group, became an extremist. He was trained in the use of arms such as country-made pistols and making bombs. He imparted training to second-rung leaders of the group.
A single Judge dismissed the writ petition. Hence, the present appeal.
Allowing the appeal, the Bench said the fact that Ravinder died in police firing was not in dispute, but the manner in which he died was in dispute.
A reading of the voluminous material on record, instead of giving any clarity, would draw gloomy clouds to the authorities' story as there were many grey areas in the case.
