By IANS,
Chennai : The Madras High Court Thursday ordered that all cases relating to the kidnapping of a family by the alleged henchmen of former state minister N.K.K.P. Raja be transferred to the criminal investigation department.
Termed CB-CID, the department functions under the control of the state director general of police.
Pronouncing orders, judge R. Raghupathy upheld the contention of lawyers representing the kidnapped family that the police was shielding Raja.
“The Crime Branch CID should identify the errant police officials in the matter and proceed against them,” the judge ruled while hearing a petition seeking directions to transfer cases filed against the former minister and his men – all belonging to the ruling DMK.
Raja was sacked from the cabinet last month following repeated charges made by a four-member family hailing from a village near Erode that Raja’s men had kidnapped them to grab their ancestral property. The family members, barring one, had been rescued on court orders.
After their release, the petitioners filed an appeal in the Supreme Court alleging that one member was still under the illegal custody of Raja’s men. The matter is pending.
The high court had in the meanwhile dismissed the anticipatory petitions of 39 people belonging to the DMK and cancelled advance bails granted earlier to seven people following the death of an 89-year-old family elder due to torture during his illegal custody. He died after his release.
The family’s lawyers filed a writ of mandamus in the court seeking directions to transfer the case to the CID for an impartial investigation.
Raja, however, has denied any wrongdoing.