HC rejects plea for judicial probe into Gandhian's death

The Madras High Court today declined to order a judicial inquiry into the recent death of Gandhian Sasiperumal during a protest against a liquor shop but ordered that the investigation into the case be monitored by a DIG.
Passing orders on the petitions by Sasiperumal's son Vivek and MDMK chief Vaiko, who impleaded in the matter, seeking a judicial probe into the July 31 death of Sasiperumal in Kanyakumari district, Justice M M Sundresh held there was no need for it considering the facts of the case.
He, however, directed the DIG of neighbouring Tirunelveli to monitor the case along with the Superintendent of Police, Kanyakumari district.

Sasiperumal died after climbing a 130-feet tall cell phone tower demanding shifting of a state-run liquor retail outlet at Unnamalai.
The Judge in his order said though the ultimate objective of the deceased "may have been laudable, the question for appointing an inquiry does not arise on the facts of the case, especially, when it is the deceased who chose the mode of protest.
"As the entire incident occurred in broad daylight in the presence of the mass gathering of the people, there are no compelling circumstances warranting such an inquiry," he said.

The Judge also directed the Investigation Officer to complete the probe.

The petitioner as well as the impleaded respondents were at liberty to furnish the materials available with them, if any, to the Investigation Officer and cooperate, he said.
Tracing the events leading to the death of Sasiperumal, the Judge said that according to the petitioners the entire incident would not have happened had the officials concerned taken appropriate steps at the earliest.
Though Sasiperumal had climbed the tower on his own, the death was due to "the negligence" on the part of officials, the petitioners had charged.
According to the version of the authorities, officials were threatened that the activist would commmit self-immolation if any step was taken to bring him down.

It was further submitted by them that Sasiperumal had ligatured his neck with the coir rope with the other end tied to the tower rod. He fell down from the tower and died.
The Judge, who disposed of the petition, said "we are not concerned with the reason for the agitation, rather the possible cause of the death."
He held that there was no material to come to the conclusion that there will be any real likelihood of bias or reasonable apprehension of it.
Noting that neither the petitioner nor the respondents were eye-witnesses and their statements before the court could at best be on hear say, the Judge observed that "prima facie, it appears that there is no material to substantiate the allegations made.