No need for CBI probe into Velachery encounter

CHENNAI: DGP K Ramanujam has told the Madras High Court that there is no need for a CBI probe in the Velachery encounter death case.“Since the investigation in the encounter death of five youths, suspects of two day-light bank robberies at gun-point, in Velachery on February 23 is transferred to the CB-CID and a judicial enquiry has already been ordered by a Judicial Magistrate as per the provisions of the Criminal Code of Conduct (CrPC) and  the National Human Rights Commission was seized of the matter, there is no need for CBI probe in the issue,” Ramanujam said in his counter-affidavit filed in the Madras High Court on Tuesday.The counter was filed in response to a public interest writ petition from advocate P Pugalenthi, who is also the director of the Prisoners Rights Forum. The PIL prayed for a direction to the authorities concerned to register cases under Section 302 (murder) of the IPC against the five police personnel involved in the encounter, besides seeking a CBI probe. During the pendency of the judicial inquiry into the matter, the present writ petition, by way of PIL, was not warranted nor it was maintainable in law. To put it otherwise, the matter was sub-judice, the counter said.To contend that an FIR must be registered in all cases of information about death caused by a police officer in the discharge of his duties and in the exercise of his right of self-defence would lead to consequences not envisaged in law, the counter added.