HC notice to Chief Secy, Home Secy on PIL seeking direction to

The Madras High Court today ordered notice to officials, including the Chief Secretary and the Home Secretary on a petition seeking a direction to government to probe the murder of 12 Scheduled Caste persons in Tirunelveli and Tuticorin districts in 2013 and 2014 by appointing a Special Investigation Team or transfering the cases to CBI.
A bench of Justices S Tamilvanan and V S Ravi ordered notice, returnable within two weeks, on a petition by S Bhaskar Mathuram, state youth wing secretary of dalit outfit Puthiya Tamizhagam.
The petitoner alleged that members of the the Devendrakula Velalar community had been murdered by mercenaries and said government should deploy paramilitary forces in the two districts to put an end to such occurrences. They should take a list of mercenaries involved in such activities like killing SCs and take stringent measures against them, he said.

The families of the deceased should also be given enhanced compensation and one member of each family should be provided a job, he said.
The petitioner submitted the murders were meticulously planned and executed and that the government machinery was not able to protect the citizens, a dangerous trend.
He alleged that the local police were in connivance with the dominant caste and filed cases against persons who had no hand in the murders and shown them as accused. They also made them surrender. The real culprits had not been booked so far.
In most of the cases,the Investigating Officers belonged to the dominant community and they tried their level best to dilute the cases by not filing the charge sheet on time, he submitted.

He also alleged that the mercenaries involved colluded with the IO's.