'10 Yrs Elapsed, CBI Couldn't Even Determine Motive, Unfortunate': Madras High Court Constitutes SIT To Probe Murder Of DMK Minister's Brother

In the ten-year-old gruesome murder case of K.N. Ramajayam in the heart of Trichy City, Madras High Court has ordered the constitution of a Special Investigation Team in the hopes that a logical conclusion will be reached about the culprit and the motive behind the murder. The deceased was the brother of DMK Minister KN Nehru.

A single-judge bench of Justice V. Bharathidasan pronounced the orders on a plea filed by N. Ravichandran, one of the brothers of the deceased, seeking transfer of investigation from Central Bureau of Investigation to Tamil Nadu State Police.

The Court however noted that the state police investigated the case for nearly five years, and therefore, retransferring the case to TN Police wouldn't be fruitful.

"...It is a very unfortunate situation. The fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles 20 and 21 of the Constitution of India, not restricted only to fair and speedy trial, it also guarantees fair and speedy investigation. The fair and speedy investigation would only lead to advancement of justice and instill confidence in the mind of the victim as well as public. A fair and speedy investigation only would take the case to its logical conclusion."

The newly constituted SIT with 'dedicated and efficient officers' will be led by the Superintendent of Police, Tuticorin. The other two members of the SIT will be Ariaylur Deputy Superintendent of Police and R.Ravi, Deputy Superintendent of Police, SCB, CBI, Chennai. The reason for the inclusion of R. Ravi is that he has been investigating the case for the past four years, the court clarified.

The court has also specifically instructed that Mr R. Ravi should be deputed exclusively to SIT and he must not be transferred till the investigation is complete or the court orders to that effect. The investigation by the SIT Team will be under the supervision of DGP (CB-CID).

The State Government has also been asked to provide complete support to the investigating team, including budgetary assistance.

Directing the SIT to commence investigation preferably by 21st February, Madras High Court has also asked the team to turn in status reports on investigation once every fortnight. Therefore, the matter will be taken up again on 7th March, 2022.

Upon a request made by the counsels, the single judge bench has asked the registry to place the matter before the Acting Chief Justice for appropriate orders so that the further proceedings based on the course of the investigation will continue before Justice V. Bharathidasan.

Ramajayam was one of the prominent businessmen in Trichy and the brother of DMK's TN Cabinet Minister K.N Nehru. He was found dead on the banks of the Cauvery river soon after the wee hours of 29th March, 2012. After an initial investigation by the State Police that led to nowhere, the case was transferred to CB-CID.

CB-CID investigated the case until 2017. In the aftermath of the High Court allowing an application filed by the wife of deceased seeking transfer of investigation to CBI, the case was taken up by the agency in 2018. However, the CBI has also tasted defeat in ascertaining the motive behind the murder or zeroing in on the culprit. Even though a representation was made by the petitioner to the CBI seeking retransfer of murder case, it elicited no response from the investigating agency. Therefore, the current writ petition was filed.

"Though almost 10 years have elapsed, a premier investigating wing of the State, the CB CID and the CBI could not even find out the motive behind the murder", the court noted about the cluelessness of the investigating agencies so far in the 'sensational' murder case.

About the status report filed by CBI, the court also added that,

"From the status report filed by the CBI in the writ petition, it could be seen that there were number of possible motives put forth by the CBI and inspite of effective investigation for almost four years, now, the CBI admitted that they were unable to zero-in on the motive behind the murder till today."

When the arguments were heard by the bench Senior Counsel N.R Elango appearing for the petitioner submitted that the investigation can't go on indefinitely even after 10 years and CBI is already overburdened with cases.

The Special Public Prosecutor for CBI argued that the agency was putting in its best efforts despite the vanishing of vital evidence on account of elapse of time since the murder. According to CBI, this was 'one of the very rare cases' where the investigation couldn't zero in on any motive behind the murder. The investigating agency attributed this dilemma to the numerous political and business rivals that the deceased had, which in turn, widened the scope for motive. Ascertaining motive became a humongous task in the absence of scientific evidence like chance fingerprints, eye witnesses or CCTV footage, added the prosecutor.

Case Title: N. Ravichandran v. The Director of Central Bureau of Investigation & Ors.

Case No: W.P.(Crl.) No.257 of 2022

Citation: 2022 LiveLaw (Mad) 54

Click Here To Read/ Download Order