HC flays police over failure to arrest accused in hoarding

The Madras High Court on Wewdnesday flayed the police for their inability to arrest the prime accused in the erection of illegal banner which caused the death of a 23-year old two-wheeler rider recently.

A division bench of Justice M Sathyanarayanan and Justice N Seshasayee directed the Additional Commissioner of Police to file a status report by October 23.

When the contempt plea moved by Traffic KR Ramaswamy was taken up for hearing, senior counsel P Wilson for DMK drew the attention of the court to an affidavit filed by the party recording its clear stand against illegal banners.

It had been 13 days since R Subhasree, a techie, was ran over by a lorry after she fell down as the hoarding collapsed on her here. But the police have not arrested the prime accused Jayagopal who erected the banner. They were hand-in-glove with the suspects, Wilson alleged.

He sought transfer of the investigation to CB-CID police.

Additional Advocate General submitted that the city police was taking all steps to nab Jayagopal. Though special teams have been formed, they were still not able to get any clue about his whereabouts.

The bench censured the police for failing to arrest the prime accused and allowing him to vanish.

The death of the girl had triggered an outrage.