P PUGALENTHI Vs. STATE OF TAMIL NADU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner, by name, P.Pugalendhi, Director of Prisoners Right Forum, Chennai, has approached this Court by way of the present Public Interest Litigation seeking for a direction to the Secretary to Government, Home Department, to register a case against the police personnel under Section 302 IPC in connection with their involvement in the alleged murder of one R.Rajan @ Shanmugasundaram on 25.8.2009 in the early morning at Adyar Police Station, Chennai.

(2.) THE grievance of the petitioner is that on 26.8.2009, almost all the newspapers in the State flashed the shocking news of the custodial death of the said Rajan @ Shanmugasundaram. According to the police, the said Rajan @ Shanmugasundaram was nabbed by local people at Neelangarai and handed over to Neelangarai police station on the evening of 24.8.2009. It was also stated that after interrogation, he was taken to a private hospital and he was declared dead at about 3.00 a.m. on 25.8.2009. A Revenue Divisional Officer Enquiry was ordered as to his death. As it was a custodial death, the State cannot plead innocence and the officers-in-charge of the police station at the relevant point of time should be prosecuted by registering F.I.R. THE petitioner has approached this Court on the basis of the reports carried on in the newspapers.

(3.) IN response to the above submission of the learned Government Pleader, Mr.Radhakrishnan, the learned counsel for the petitioner would further submit that sub-section (3) of Section 176 Cr.P.C. contemplates that in case the Magistrate, who conducts the enquiry, considers it expedient to make an examination of the dead body of any person who has been already interred, in order to discover the causes of his death, he may cause the body to be disinterred and examined. As the body has already been cremated, the compliance of sub-section (3) of Section 176 is a remote possibility and therefore, the enquiry by the Magistrate would be only a false.