NEW DELHI: Supreme Court Monday constituted a three-member SIT, comprising DIG-rank IPS officer Saroj Kumar Thakur and women IPS officers Ayman Jamal and S Brinda, to "objectively and fairly" investigate on a day-to-day basis the September 29 sexual assault of a 10-year-old girl at Anna Nagar in Chennai. From among nine IPS officers, including three women of Tamil Nadu cadre but belonging to other states, a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan picked the three based on seniority and constituted the SIT while modifying that part of Madras HC's October 1 order by which the probe was entrusted to CBI. Tamil Nadu had challenged the HC order for a CBI probe before SC.
The bench said if the probe gets entrusted to CBI, no one will know what the outcome was even after five to seven years. "It is better to constitute an SIT and let the HC monitor the progress," it said. While Thakur is joint commissioner of police (east), Greater Chennai, Jamal is deputy commissioner of police, Avadi (law and order), and Brinda is deputy commissioner of police, Salem.
SC directed Tamil Nadu govt and the DGP to partly relieve these officers from other responsibilities to complete the task entrusted to them. Ordering continuance of investigation on a day-to-day basis, the bench asked the SIT to submit a probe progress report to the Madras HC on a weekly basis. The bench requested Madras HC chief justice to constitute an appropriate bench that would take stock of the periodic probe status repor.
