The Madras High Court on Tuesday ordered expeditious trial in a criminal case booked against former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi assassination case convict Murugan alias V. Sriharan for having allegedly stood naked before the prison officials and showing obscene gestures when they seized a packet of Vallarai, Tulsi and other dry leaves from his cell in the Vellore Central Prison on December 9, 2020.
Justice N. Sathish Kumar passed the order while dealing with a petition filed by the convict, through his counsel S. Doraisamy and V. Elangovan, to quash the First Information Report (FIR) registered at Bagayam police station in Vellore. Additional Public Prosecutor E. Raj Thilak said, the investigation in the case had been completed and a charge sheet too had been filed before the Magistrate concerned.
Therefore, the judge closed the FIR quash petition with a direction to expedite the trial. In his complaint to the police, the jailor J. Mohankumar had said, a guard on duty in the high security zone of the prison had seen a convict named D. Gabriel pass on some packet to Sriharan on December 9, 2020. Immediately, a team of prison guards including a woman went along with a video camera to search his cell.
