The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a special leave petition for a CBI probe into the murder of BJP State Secretary, Auditor Ramesh of Salem, stating that sufficient progress had been made in the investigation being conducted by the State CB CID.
A Bench of Chief Justice P. Sathasivam and Justice Ranjan Gogoi told counsel R. Krishnamurthy and N. Rajaraman, appearing for the petitioner T. Manoharan, “We can’t say there is no progress in the investigation. Some arrests have been made by the CB CID.”
When Mr. Krishnamurthy submitted that there was no headway as no weapon used for the murder had been recovered and only stock accused had been arrested, the CJI said, “It is not proper for us to say that they have been wrongly arrested. It is not a fit case for entrusting it to the CBI.” Counsel, however, reiterated that there had been no headway or breakthrough in the investigation into the murders of 16 members of the BJP and its affiliate organisation. The Bench, however, dismissed the SLP.
The High Court, while dismissing the petition, had pointed out that immediately after the incident, the State police swung into action and a Special Investigation Division (SID) was set up. Some of the accused said to have been involved in the heinous crime had also been identified and steps were being taken to arrest them.
In his SLP directed against the judgment, the petitioner said,“The CBI probe could not be denied when there was a systemic failure in the Police department for 18 months to unearth murders and nabbing the culprits.” He prayed for quashing the impugned judgment and a direction to order a CBI probe into the death of his brother.
