MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Thursday directed the Madurai Commissioner of Police to secure and produce four persons, who were alleged to be behind the suspicious withdrawal of a custodial death case, before the court.

A Division Bench took suo motu cognisance of issue in 2020 after an advocate, Henri Tiphagne, wrote to the court that the victim’s father, Muthukaruppan, was coerced into withdrawing the case by relatives of the policemen alleged to be responsible for the death. Tiphagne also submitted audio clips of persons involved in a sealed cover.

The case was once again heard on Thursday by Justices TS Sivagnanam and S Ananthi.  The judges then directed the commissioner to secure Athi Narayanan, Kathir, Ramesh, and Loganathan, who reportedly convinced Muthukaruppan to withdraw the case, and produce them in court in the next hearing. Balamurugan (22) was arrested by Avaniyapuram police in October 2019, in an abduction case and was later admitted to a hospital, where he died a few days later.