Maliciouos prosecution: HC orders woman to undergo DNA test

The Madras High Court today ordered DNA test on a woman to ascertain her claim that she had been wrongly declared as murdered in 2002.
Justice S.Nagamuthu ordered Mekala and her father to undergo DNA test. Besides, he also directed the District Superintendent of Police to inquire about her with her relatives in Tuticorin district.
He directed the police, who investigated the 13-year old case, to find out whether the lower court had wrongly come to the conclusion that the woman had been murdered.
The orders were passed during the hearing of a petition by two persons, arrested in connection with the 'murder', seeking compensation for malicious prosecution and registration of criminal cases against concerned police personnel.

Nine years after the woman was 'murdered', she had appeared before the District Collector in 2011, in a dramatic twist to the case.
"Police might have made a mistake or they might have deliberately claimed the woman had been murdered. The (lower) court also had accepted. But when the woman reappears, it has to be confirmed whether the mistake has been done deliberately or not so that there is no blemish on the image of the police," the Judge said.

Stating that a sessions court in Tuticorin had acquitted them in the murder case in 2007 for want of sufficient evidence, the petitioners sought compensation for the harassment meted out to them.

The Tuticorin SP appeared in the court to explain the steps taken by him so far in the case and said Mekala was not killed and "is very much alive."
The Judge noted that the SP had not not reported to this court as to whether the woman who now claimed to be Mekala, alias Manimekalai, was really Mekala or she was impersonating.
Posing several questions, the judge asked the SP to file a report on July 15.