Form SITs in each dist for ‘undetected’ theft cases, says HC

HEARING a batch of petitions filed by victims of seven theft cases which were closed by the state police as ‘undetected’, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Tuesday directed the Home department to pay monetary compensation of 30% of the value of the stolen properties, which included gold and cash, to the respective petitioners within three months.

- JEGADEESWARI PANDIAN

Justice B Pugalendhi, who passed the order, further told the state to consider setting up a special investigation team of experts in each district to investigate theft cases that have been classified under ‘undetected’ for more than five years. These teams should be provided with better infrastructure, powers, and pay, he added.

The judge observed that a perusal of the files of the above cases revealed that many of the critical steps of investigation, such as examination of local witnesses, use of forensic tools, review of CCTV, were either delayed or omitted altogether.