The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Thursday directed the CB-CID to submit in a sealed cover the status report on the investigation carried out so far in the Sattankulam custodial deaths of trader P. Jayaraj and his son J. Benicks.

A Division Bench of Justices M. Sathyanarayanan and P. Rajamanickam observed that the CBI or the CB-CID should take immediate and necessary steps to file a petition within 15 days to get the custody of the accused for inquiry. They directed the CBI to use the materials collected by the CB-CID and asked the media not to misinterpret court proceedings and indulge in media trial as it may affect the prosecution and the accused.

During the course of the hearing, Assistant Solicitor General V. Kathirvelu informed the court that a seven-member CBI team will reach Madurai on July 10 and a request was placed before the Chief Secretary to provide the required facilities..

Additional Advocate General K. Chellapandian told the court that 10 people, Sridhar, Balakrishnan, Raghuganesh, Murugan, Chelladurai, Samidurai, Thomas Francis, Veilmuthu, Pauldurai and Muthuraj were arrested in connection with the case. He submitted that the statement under Section 164 of the CrPC were recorded from witnesses. The investigating agency was making preparation to file a petition for custody, he informed the court. He submitted that a compensation of ₹ 20 lakh was given to the family of traders and a proposal to provide a government job to a family member of the victims was under consideration.

The court suo motu impleaded CB-CID and CBI as respondents in the case. It directed that required facilities be provided to the CBI for the investigation and adjourned the hearing till July 28.

Meanwhile, two separate petitions were filed before the High Court. The petition filed by K.S. Arjunan of CPI(M) sought a direction for a probe into the deaths by a special investigation team. The court ordered notice to the State.

The petition filed by advocate L. Vasuki, who sought a direction to the State to ensure that the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court in the landmark Lalitha Kumari case were followed, was closed with a liberty to file an intervening petition in the case to the main petition.