The Madras high court on Friday ordered notice to the state government and the DGP on a petition which sought to dispose a representation to inquire the team headed by Opposition leader in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj, which visited Sri Lanka on April 16 and arrest Sri Lankan minister Douglas Devananda, an absconding accused in a murder case here.
Justice N. Paul Vasanthakumar admitted the petition from A. Irulandi, a human rights activist from Meenambalpuram in Madurai, which sought a direction to dispose of his representation dated April 26.
According to the petitioner, Douglas had been involved in a murder case and a few other criminal cases in Tamil Nadu and he was absconding.
A lower court concerned had issued a proclamation order also.
While so, a team led by Sushma Swaraj met Douglas during their visit to Sri Lanka on April 16 this year.
The purpose of the visit is said to find out the status of the Tamil people who suffered in view of the internal war between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil people and also to visit the places destroyed by the army.
In this circumstances, the team met Douglas involved in various criminal cases in Tamil Nadu and the cases were pending before the courts concerned.
Hence, meeting with an absconding accused against whom proclamation warrant was also issued by the courts concerned was a criminal offence.
The team also indirectly helped the accused to escape from appearing before the courts concerned, petitioner alleged.
He said if Sushma and her team was properly enquired, the police can easily find out the whereabouts of Douglas and bring him to India to face the pending trials.
In this connection, he gave a representation to the authorities on April 24,. But so far no action had been taken. Hence, he filed the present petition, he added.