Observing that any form of violence is a product of a sick mind and “we cannot afford to lose any more Benickss and Jayarajs”, the Madras High Court (Madurai Bench) on Thursday directed the Tamil Nadu government to continue to fund its Police Wellbeing Programme for five years. The programme was initiated in 2018 in collaboration with the National Institute for Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru and its three-year duration was about to end.
“Only through such wellbeing programmes can violent propensities in individuals be stymied,” a bench of Justices P.N. Prakash and B. Pugalendhi, which is suo motu hearing the custodial deaths case of trader Jayaraj and his son Benicks, said. A few bad apples here and there should not be a reason to condemn the entire force of around 1.25 lakh police personnel in the State, who were already in the forefront battling the COVID-19 pandemic, it added. The wellness programme should continue because public security can be ensured only if the police force is physically, mentally and morally strong.
The judges took note of the arrest of four Sattankulam police personnel by the CB-CID and the submission made by Additional Advocate General K. Chellapandian that Head Constable Revathy, a key witness in the case, was granted paid leave for a month and four constables were deployed at her house for security.
CB-CID Investigating Officer Anil Kumar submitted that the State had provided sufficient infrastructure to conduct the investigation. The court permitted him to collect and examine forensic documents in the case.
Taking note of the fact that the Thoothukudi chief judicial magistrate (CJM) had nominated the judicial magistrate-I, Kovilpatti, for handling CB-CID cases in the district, the judges said that a case of this gravity has to be dealt with by a judicial officer of the rank of a subordinate judge. “We are of the view that the CJM should exercise the powers of the judicial magistrate-I Kovilpatti, in this case,” it said.
The CJM is the head of Magistracy in the district and there is absolutely no bar for him to exercise the powers of a judicial magistrate functioning within his jurisdiction. Consequently, the High Court under Section 407 Cr.P.C. directed the transfer of the custodial death case from the file of the judicial magistrate-I, Kovilpatti, to the file of the CJM. The judicial magistrate shall complete the enquiry and send the original enquiry report with all the connected records to the CJM, who, in turn, shall furnish copies of the same to the investigating officer.
The court directed the Deputy Director of Prosecution, Tirunelveli Range, to provide legal guidance to the investigating team and also to appear for the CB-CID in the enquiries before the CJM and in the proceedings before the Court of Session, Thoothukudi, to deal with bail applications and the like.
During the course of the hearing, it was submitted that atleast 5% of the police personnel were under extreme stress and suicidal thought would be identified and arrested through the NIMHANS programme. The training programme has yielded positive results and it was the women police personnel who had shown more interest in the specialised training programmes.
Dr. C. Ramasubramaniam, the State Nodal Officer for the Wellenss Programme submitted that the stress levels of the police personnel was enormous.
Another case
The court noted that it had earlier directed the CJM, Thoothukudi, to conduct an enquiry with regard to the injuries sustained by one Raja Singh, an inmate of the Sub Jail, Kovilpatti. After completing the enquiry, if the CJM is of the opinion that a full-fledged police investigation is required into the matter, she may direct the jurisdictional Station House Officer, to conduct the investigation. On such directions, the police shall register an F.I.R. Immediately thereafter, the Superintendent of Police, Thoothukudi, shall transfer the investigation of the case to the DSP, Thoothukudi.
The judges then adjourned the case till July 9.
Published - July 03, 2020 12:49 am IST
