The Madras High Court Bench here on Thursday ordered transfer of investigation into the death of a Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam functionary in Dindigul on September 15 from the local police to the Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID).
Justice M.M. Sundresh passed the order on a transfer petition filed by P. Jeeva, former chairperson of Eriodu panchayat union and co-brother of the deceased, P. Balachandar, whose body was found on the railway track between Dindigul and Eriodu police stations. The petitioner, a DMK office-bearer, had alleged that the personnel attached to Railway police station in Dindigul had failed to investigate the case properly despite lodging a specific complaint fearing the active role of his political rivals in the death of Balachandar.
His counsel R. Gandhi said that the local police had not altered the provisions of the FIR, initially registered under Section 174 (police officers’ duty to enquire and report on suicide) of the Cr.P.C, even after 10 months. He also contended that there were reasonable apprehension of the deceased having been hacked to death by a gang which threw his body in front of a speeding train on the rail track to make it appear as a case of suicide.
