A Division Bench of the Madras High Court on Monday ordered the transfer of a petition against the Sri Lankan Minister for Traditional Industries and Small Enterprises, Douglas Devananda, to another Bench.
In his petition, P. Pugalenthi, secretary of the Tamil Nadu People's Rights Forum, had sought the arrest of the Sri Lankan Minister in a case relating to a murder at Choolaimedu here in November 1986.
There was a quarrel between him and other accused, who were Sri Lankan Tamils, with the local people on Deepavali. Thirunavukkarasu, a local, died when he was fired at. When the matter came up before a Division Bench of Justices C. Nagappan and T. Sudanthiram, the latter Judge said that he would not hear the case.
Following this, the Bench directed the Registry to place the petition before the Chief Justice for posting it before some other Bench.
