Chennai: A social worker today (Nov 4, 2004) filed a petition in the Madras High Court for a direction to Dharmapuri district police to register a case of murder against Additional Director General of Police and Tamil Nadu Special Task Force (STF) chief K Vijayakumar in connection with the October 18 last killing of outlaw Veerappan.

The petitioner, S Rajendran, has charged the State STF chief with failing to capture the outlaw alive and instead killing him or allowing him to commit suicide.

He said the public felt that Veerappan might have committed suicide when the STF personnel cornered him. This was the first incident of encounter killing involving Vijayakumar, he alleged.

Though four persons were killed in the encounter, a First Information Report (FIR) was yet to be filed under section 154 CrPC "for an offence of murder under section 302 IPC."

National Human Rights Commission had already given a direction that when there was encounter killing, police had to register a case under section 302 IPC.

Stating that the victims of the crime hardly had any guaranteed rights of compensation, the petitioner said that Tamil Nadu Government had announced a total reward of Rs 22.5 crore, besides accelerated promotions and house sites for all 752 STF personnel.

The petitioner also prayed for a direction to restrain Vijayakumar from taking out a rally from Bannariamman Koil in Sathyamangalam to Chennai.

This would create social disharmony among the people of Tamil Nadu, he contended.