The Madras High Court on Wednesday demanded to know what action the Chennai police and city Corporation had taken to punish those responsible for 23-year-old techie Subashri's death on September 12. And while both parties responded that action had been initiated against officers who should have prevented the setting up of the banners, Judges Sathyanarayan and Seshasayee noted wryly that the police were yet to arrest former AIADMK councillor S Jayagopal, who erected the banners for his son's wedding.
The observations by the Madras High Court were made while hearing a petition filed by social activist Traffic Ramasamy who urged the police to register a case under Section 302 (murder) of the IPC against the errant officials – ‘concerned police officer, corporation department official and the ruling party persons who have permitted or erected the banned illegal banner, which caused murder of one innocent young lady today’.
The police in their response to the court, stated that departmental action had been initiated against the inspectors of St Thomas Mount Traffic police and the Pallikarnai police station. The Chennai corporation meanwhile has initiated disciplinary proceedings against AVK Kamalraj, the concerned Division Assistant Engineer and Assistant Executive Engineer R Ravivarman. The Corporation submitted that it is contemplating major punishment for the misconduct and negligence on his part.
The court however remained dissatisfied and demanded to know how long the police will take to arrest the main accused Jayagopal. To this, Senior Counsel for the Government Vijay Narayan responded that a team under St Thomas Mount Assistant Commissioner was making efforts to arrest the former councillor.
DMK Rajya Sabha MP and advocate P Wilson however pointed out that it has been 13 days since Subashri's death, and Jayagopal was nowhere close to being arrested. He requested that the case be shifted to the CB CID.