No one would have expected that the hearing of a civil appeal filed by a knitting company in the Madras High Court would lead to the unearthing of 2.14 lakh criminal cases in the State that were closed abruptly between 2009 and 2014 for non-filing of final reports by the police and another 1.72 lakh cases pending before trial courts without being taken on file.
After Justice M.V. Muralidaran smelt a rat and dug out the details, the Home Secretary and the Director-General of Police told the court on Tuesday that they had taken steps to initiate disciplinary action against the investigating officers concerned by issuing show cause notices to 7,324 officials, who failed to file final reports within the statutory period.
The court was also told that the DGP had issued a circular to all his subordinate officials on January 30 listing steps to be taken to streamline the investigation and prosecution of criminal cases from scratch to end.