Karur stampede case has political undertone, says SC, hands it over to CBI

NEW DELHI: Noting that the Karur stampede in Tamil Nadu shook "national conscience" and the case has " political undertone ", Supreme Court Monday decided to hand over the probe into the tragedy to CBI & also appointed a three-member panel headed by its former judge Ajay Rastogi to supervise the investigation.

Questioning the fairness of the investigation, a bench of Justices J K Maheshwari and N V Anjaria noted that top state police officials had made a statement that their subordinates were not at fault and said, "Prima facie, this fact in itself creates a doubt in the minds of the public about the independence and impartiality of the investigation."

The families of those who died and got injured are in the doldrums and what they want is a free and fair probe, with the political tussle over the stampede being of little solace to them.

SC: Karur case has shaken nat'l conscience, deserves fair probe

The incident of Karur stampede has definitely left an imprint in the minds of the citizens throughout the country, wherein 41 persons died in a stampede and more than 100 were injured; it has wide ramifications in respect of the life of the citizens and in this context enforcing the fundamental rights of the families who lost their kith and kin is of utmost importance.

Therefore, looking to the political undertone of the case and the fact that without having regard to the gravity of the incident, the comments which have been made before the media by the top officers of the police department may create doubt in the minds of the citizenry on impartiality and fair investigation . The faith and trust of the general public on the process of investigation must be restored in the criminal justice system, and one way to instill such trust is by ensuring that the investigation in the present case is completely impartial, independent and unbiased," the bench said.

"Looking to the fact that the issue involved certainly has a bearing on the fundamental rights of the citizens and the incident which has shaken the national conscience deserves fair and impartial investigation. As such, by way of interim measure, direction deserves to be issued to hand over the investigation to the CBI, which would lead to fair administration of justice. There cannot be any doubt that fair investigation is the right of a citizen," it said.

Immediately after the court passed the order, the state govt brought to its notice the fact that families of two victims, whose name was used to petition for CBI probe , had denied any role in filing the petitions. Senior advocates A M Singhvi and P Wilson, appearing for the state, said that fraud was being played on the court. Taking note of their submission, the bench said it would take cognizance of the issue but added that the controversy would not have a bearing on its order as other petitioners too had sought a CBI probe. One of the petitioners is the TVK party . Though it did not seek a CBI probe, the party had requested the court to direct that the ongoing probe be supervised by a retired SC judge.

The bench also sought an explanation from the Madras high court on the manner in which a single-judge bench of the court had taken suo motu cognizance of the case and ordered SIT probe when a similar matter was pending before the Madurai bench of HC .

"..it is clear that the division bench at Madurai denied the CBI investigation, holding that the investigation by the local police is not flawed, while the learned single judge at the Main Seat (Chennai), dissatisfied with the police investigation, directed for constitution of SIT. Such recourse prima facie indicates the lack of sensitivity and propriety to deal with such a matter, creating multiplicity of proceedings, for reasons best known to the Hon'ble Judges," the bench said.

"But by taking suo motu cognizance even during pendency of writ petitions before the Madurai bench within whose jurisdiction the incident took place and also ignoring that the Hon'ble Chief Minister of the State has already constituted an Enquiry Commission comprising a retired Judge of the High Court, how far the order of the learned Single Judge was correct in taking suo motu cognizance and creating a SIT, is an issue."

The court directed the CBI to forthwith appoint a senior officer for taking over the investigation and ordered the state police to immediately hand over the FIR and other relevant papers, evidence - digital or otherwise - collected till now to the CBI for further investigation.