Hearing on the petition filed by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the decade-old murder of K.N. Ramajeyam, brother of Municipal Administration Minister K.N. Nehru, seeking to conduct polygraph tests on 13 suspects was adjourned to November 7 by a Judicial Magistrate court here on Tuesday.
Summons had been issued to the 13 suspects by the Judicial Magistrate Court - VI recently based on the petition filed by the SIT. The Court had directed the 13 suspects to appear before it on Tuesday in order to obtain their consent for undergoing the polygraph tests. Twelve of the suspects were involved in murder cases at various places. One of them was a prisoner lodged in the Central Prison at Cuddalore, who was brought with police escort to be produced at the the Court.
SIT officers and the counsels of the suspects were present when the petition came up for hearing on Tuesday morning. The court asked the SIT to file an affidavit and adjourned the hearing to November 7.
A counsel who appeared for one of the suspects later told reporters outside the court that a Deputy Superintendent of Police of the SIT had filed the petition in the court instead of a Superintendent of Police and he had raised an objection on this. The counsel wondered as to how the SIT had arrived at the list of suspects to conduct the polygraph test.
The Madras High Court had in February this year ordered that a SIT be constituted to conduct probe into the 2012 murder of Ramajeyam at Tiruchi. The High Court had also said that it would monitor the investigation conducted by the SIT headed by Superintendent of Police Jeyakumar.
The body of Mr. Ramajeyam, a businessman who had dealt in granite mining and real estate, was found on the banks of Cauvery river near Tiruvalarsolai on the outskirts of Tiruchi on March 29, 2012. The circumstances indicated that he was murdered after being abducted apparently when he went out for a morning walk.
The case which was initially investigated by the Tiruchi City police was subsequently transferred to the Crime Branch - CID which was unable to achieve a breakthrough till 2017. Subsequently, the investigation was transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on an application filed by Latha Ramajeyam, wife of the deceased. However, the CBI too could not achieve any headway in the murder case forcing the family members of Ramajeyam to make another application for the constitution of a SIT. The SIT had conducted enquiries with several persons, including members of the family of Ramajeyam.
