Thanjavur student suicide: Supreme Court refuses to stay CBI probe but issues notice on plea by TN DGP

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to stay the ongoing probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the Thanjavur student suicide case [Director General of Police, Tamil Nadu v. Muruganantham]..However, the Bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Bela Trivedi agreed to consider the challenge to the adverse observations made by Madras High Court against the State police and issued notice on that aspect."Let the CBI probe go on. It might not be appropriate for us to interject in the investigation of CBI. Please pass on evidence collected to CBI," the Court said. Do not make it a prestige issue, the Court added. The Court was hearing an appeal filed by the Director General of Police (DGP), Tamil Nadu against the Madras High Court order transferring the probe in the matter from State Police to CBI..The plea by the DGP said that the High Court erred in transferring the probe to the CBI. The plea also sought directions from the top court to expunge the remarks made by the High Court against the investigation conducted by the State Police..Justice GR Swaminathan of the Madras High Court had transferred the probe to the CBI after taking note that the investigation was not proceeding on the right lines, especially since a high-ranking minister had taken a stand on the matter.“The Superintendent of Police probably forgot the virtues of silence...I fail to understand as to why the Thanjavur Superintendent of Police reacted as if she had come in contact with a live electric wire,” the High Court had said in its January 31 order..The case stems from an incident that took place in January, when a girl student had consumed pesticide when she was in her school hostel. The judicial magistrate had recorded her dying declaration.In her police statement on January 16 as well as in her statement before the judicial magistrate, the child directly and in unambiguous terms accused the hostel warden of burdening her with non-academic chores, as a result of which she consumed the pesticide.Based on her statements, the hostel warden was booked for offences under Sections 305 (abetment of suicide of child or insane person), 511 (punishment for attempting to commit offences punishable with imprisonment for life or other imprisonment) of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 75 (punishment for cruelty to child) and 82 (corporal punishment) of Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015..At a later stage, a private video implicating the school’s correspondent began circulating on social media. When the same was brought to the notice of the Superintendent of Police (SP), she told a reporter that in the preliminary enquiry, a religious conversion angle was not made out.This led to the father of the deceased child losing faith in the investigation and thus moving the High Court.On January 31, the High Court had noted in its order that the petitioner was justified in entertaining the impression of bias since by stating that the conversion angle stood ruled out, the SP had brushed aside the petitioner's complaint made in writing which was backed by the child’s video.Note: This story was updated at 1.20 pm on February 14.