Sathankulam custodial death: Trail court gets four more months

MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Monday granted four months to the trial court to complete trial in the Sathankulam custodial death case. Justice K Murali Shankar issued the direction on a petition filed last year by J Selvarani, wife of deceased P Jeyaraj, seeking direction to speed up the trial. The high court, in March last year, had directed the trial judge to complete the trial proceedings within six months and extended for five more months in December. 

When the case was heard on Thursday last week, Justice Shankar had directed the trial judge to file a report on the progress of the trial. Accordingly, a report was filed on Monday requesting extension to complete the trial. 

The counsel appearing for CBI also submitted that out of nearly 105 witnesses in the case, 40 have been examined by the trial court so far. Around 15 to 20 major witnesses are yet to be examined, he added. Scientific reports, which were awaited earlier, were also submitted recently before the trial court while filing additional chargesheet, the counsel said. Since there are nine accused in the case and each witness is being cross-examined by all the nine accused, the trial is taking time, he said.