The Madras High Court on Monday decided to put an end to the practice of paid mercenaries indulging in heinous crimes such as murders by hacking or hurling country bombs and then making some individuals, including a few juveniles, surrender before judicial magistrates in far away districts just to prevent the police from conducting an effective investigation.
Justice N. Anand Venkatesh said he would pass detailed orders on the issue on March 8 and lay down guidelines to be followed by the Judicial Magistrates when individuals appear before them expressing their intent to surrender in connection with criminal cases that had been booked at police stations located outside the territorial jurisdiction of those magistrates.
The judge took the call after State Public Prosecutor (SPP) Hasan Mohamed Jinnah moved a lunch motion complaining about a Judicial Magistrate at Sathyamangalam in Erode district having accepted the surrender of four individuals in a case being investigated by Tambaram city police regarding the brutal murder of DMK functionary V.S. Aramudhan on February 29.
The SPP told the court the deceased, serving as the deputy chairman of Kattankulathur Panchayat Union in Chengalpattu district, was hacked to death by a six-member gang at Vandalur-Walajahbad Road. The gang had hurled a country made bomb on the windshield of the car of the deceased before chopping his arms and legs. The complaint was lodged by a relative of the deceased.
The complainant had claimed he would be able to identify the accused. Therefore, the police were taking sincere steps to nab them. Suddenly, five individuals, including a juvenile aged 17 years, had surrendered in connection with the case before the Sathyamangalam Judicial Magistrate on March 1 and the judicial officer remanded four of them to judicial custody till March 6.
All the four, aged between 20 and 22, were lodged in the district central jail at Gobichettipalayam in Erode district on the basis of the remand order passed without any notice to the Otteri police under Tambaram city commissionerate, the SPP said. He pointed out the the 17-year-old too was referred to a Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) and lodged at an observation home.
Making things worse, four more accused had surrendred in connection with the same case before a Srivilliputtur Judicial Magistrate in Virudhunagar district and they too had been remanded there, the law officer said. He told the court such tactics were being followed by the accused to prevent the police from subjecting them to custodial interrogation before the evidence gets erased/destroyed.
Insisting that voluntary surrender of person should be permitted only before a judicial magistrate, holding territorial jurisdiction over the police station where the case had been registered, Mr. Jinnah urged the High Court to quash the remand order passed by the Sathyamangalam Judicial Magistrate and frame gudelines to be followed by all judicial magistrates in the State on such issues in future.
