IG Murugan case probe goes to Telangana police

The direction transferring the case was based on the woman officer’s plea that the officer behind the harassment was influencing the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC).

A division bench comprising Justice Vineeth Kothari and Justice C V Karthikeyan, on setting aside the government submission that only a trial by a court of law could be transferred to another state and not the investigation, directed the Telangana DGP to appoint a senior woman member of the state’s police force as the special officer to probe the complaint and file a report within six months.

In a recent hearing, the bench had suggested the transfer of the case out of Tamil Nadu to either a neighbouring state or to Delhi since the investigating agencies failed to comply with Justice SM Subramaniam’s directions to reconstitute the Sexual Harassment Committee and conduct a fair probe.

The case pertains to a woman SP filing a sexual harassment complaint against S Murugan, Joint Director of the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption in August 2018. Following this, the CB-CID registered an FIR against Murugan in September last year. However, the case did not see the light of the day till the woman officer approached the court alleging that the police department was hurriedly trying to constitute an internal committee to inquire into the complaint.

The woman officer had also moved a plea seeking criminal action against Murugan and shunt him out of DVAC because since she feared that Murugan’s continuation in the post will influence the inquiry.

The CB-CID had registered an FIR against Murugan in September under Sections 341 (Punishment for wrongful restraint), 354 (Assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), and 509 (Word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the IPC read with Section 4 of the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Harassment of Women Act, 1998. Thereafter, Murugan was transferred to the Economic Offences Wing in June this year.