more-in The Madras High Court on Thursday decided to hold in-camera proceedings on a plea made by the accused in the Ayanavaram child rape case to transfer the investigation from the city police to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to ensure a free and fair probe. The decision was taken to avoid a trial by the media. Justice A.D. Jagadish Chandira will hear the case in his chambers on Tuesday. When Shaik Mehrunisa, counsel for the 14 petitioners, claimed that her clients had been declared guilty by society at large, even before commencement of trial, the judge replied: “In all fairness, there should not be trial by media.” He, however, told counsel that she would have to first establish how the investigation could be transferred when the local police had already completed it and filed a chargesheet before a lower court. He also said only the accused would get to benefit during trial if the police had not conducted a proper investigation. To this, counsel contended there was not even a remote chance of acquittal of the accused from the case as the police have branded them as rapists and establishing it by leaking news to the media. She alleged that their photographs were published widely even before the conduct of identification parade. Opposing the accusations levelled against the prosecution, Special Public Prosecutor N. Ramesh told the court that a thorough investigation had been conducted by the city police, which had mentioned specific overt acts committed by each and every accused in the chargesheet filed against them. He argued that the question of change of investigation would not arise at all after the filing of the final report.

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