Chennai: Velachery residents back encounter killing

CHENNAI: A batch of pleas have been made in the Madras High Court supporting the action of police personnel in killing five youths, said to be involved in two bank robberies, in an encounter in the wee hours of February 23. Yuvaraj Mohandas and five other advocates and M Vasudevan and 23 others, all residents of Velachery, have moved the High Court seeking permission to implead themselves as parties in the writ petition filed by advocate P Pugalenthi.
The petition had prayed for a direction to the government to register a case under Sec 302 of the IPC (murder) against police personnel who staged the encounter and to hand over the investigation of the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Petitioners said that, of late, there has been a large-scale migration of people from the northern States to Tamil Nadu and they, after establishing roots, started indulging in crimes, many of which were dastardly and grave in nature. Almost all the cases involving them still remained unsolved due to lack of their identity.
Petitioners also said that the police could not be expected to show sympathy and they were right in resorting to fire at the criminals to protect themselves and the general public.
Pugalenthi’s petition was publicity-oriented and it was premature as the matter has been pending before the Human Rights Commission and the probe was transferred to the CB-CID, they added.
Meanwhile, when the public interest writ petition from Pugalenthi came up before a division bench comprising Justices Elipe Dharma Rao and N Kirubakaran today, Advocate-General A Navaneethakrishnan took notice for the government. Public prosecutor took notice for the top police officers and N Chandrasekaran for the CBI. Directing the respondents to file their counters, the bench adjourned the matter till March 6.

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