CHENNAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has chided a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), CB-CID, the Public Prosecutor (PP) and the Principal Sessions Judge (PSJ) at Dindigul for their lapses in handling a case relating to the abduction and murder of a popular doctor in Dindigul.
“We wish to express our anguish over the way in which the police officer in the rank of a DSP had investigated the case and the way in which the case was conducted by the PP before the trial court. The court was also in error on many counts,” the bench of Justices S Nagamuthu and MV Muralidharan observed on January 23.
For want of evidence and because of the failure of the investigating agency in collecting sufficient evidence, the bench said that it was unable to convict as many as seven accused in the kidnap and murder of Baskaran, a well-known doctor, who owned vast extent of property in Dindigul and Kodaikanal, on April 30, 2009.
The bench, however, upheld the order of the trial court dated April 10, 2015, awarding life term to the first two accused -- Karthikeyan and Sabeer Ahemad.
Ordering the total acquittal of seven accused, the bench observed that adequate attention was not bestowed by the investigating agency.
It was done in a careless manner, the judges added and hoped that in the days to come, the investigating officers will be properly trained in legal matters so that there shall occur no failure of justice.