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HC concludes Balan case

By Our Staff Reporter

CHENNAI JULY 18 . The Madras High Court today concluded that the former MLA, M.K. Balan, who was reported missing since December 30 last year, was no longer alive, and closed a habeas corpus petition filed by B. Manimaran seeking to produce the corpus of his father in court.

``We do not consider it necessary to continue these proceedings any longer, as prima facie it is known from the investigations that Balan is no longer alive,'' a Division Bench comprising Justice R. Jayasimha Babu and Justice E. Padmanabhan said.

Taking exception to the petitioner's allegation that certain confessional statements of the accused were replaced at the behest of the Director-General of Police, the Bench said ``the allegation made against the DGP is reckless and irresponsible. The aspersions cast against him are totally unwarranted''.

``The allegation made against the DGP on the basis of the notes supposedly taken by him (Manimaran) or his lawyer, cannot be accepted as tenable basis for the insinuation that the entire confessional statement of an accused Senthilkumar/Poonga Nagar Manickam had been replaced.''

On Mr. Manimaran's plea for transfer of investigation to the CBI, the Bench said ``the question, as to whether the investigation and the prosecution would remain with the State police or the CBI, is beyond the scope of these proceedings''.

The Bench also recorded the Additional Public Prosecutor, A. Navaneethakrishnan's submission that the police had examined 180 witnesses and arrested 17 out of the 18 accused persons. One of them is still at large.

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