Madurai: Madras high court on Saturday sought response from four people allegedly responsible for withdrawal of a case filedby a man in connection with the custodial death of his son at Avaniyapuram police station in Madurai in 2019. A division benchof Justices T S Sivagnanam and S Ananthi said they do not agree with the submissions of petitioner Muthukaruppan’s counselthat the petition was filed by his client in his private capacity and he has every right to withdraw it.

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The case relates to a writ petition filed by Muthukaruppan before HC Madurai bench in October 2019 seeking to register an FIRand transfer the investigation to CBI in a case wherein his son M Balamurugan, 22, died in judicial custody. However, twoweeks later, Muthukaruppan changed his counsel and withdrew his petition. Subsequently, advocate Henri Tiphagne, in a letterto the court, indicated that the police officers were coercing the parents of the deceased not to depose against them. He alsoalleged that the petition was withdrawn by the father of the deceased because of threats from local police. He submittedseveral audio recordings in a sealed cover to the court. Since Muthukaruppan withdrew the petition, the court had initiated suo-motu proceedings in the case.