CHENNAI: Come May 29, the bench clerk in the XV metropolitan magistrate court would call out PRC No. 58/2004 to check if Korukkupet police had executed the arrest warrant issued eleven years ago.
And as has been going on ritually for decades, police may inform the court that the two accused, against whom police filed a charge sheet on May 5, 1998 for murdering a woman in 1995, are untraceable.
The men named as absconding accused are Mariappan and Muthu, the duo whom Korukkupet police found out last week were murdered nearly 20 years ago.
All these years, the men who committed the murder, Ramachandran (57) and Anbil Gyana Durai alias Anbu (56), were living within the Korukkupet police limits actively dealing in scrap and plastic items business with little fear of law.
The spot where the duo’s bodies were reduced to ash is now part of a highway. All this while, the ritual of calling out the pending arrest warrant has been continuing in the magistrate court.
The chargesheet against Mariappan and Muthu, of murdering a home-alone woman, was gathering dust among the piles of bundles in the court rooms. A sessions court has been patiently waiting for police to produce the accused to begin the trial.
When Express dug out details of the case, what was worryingly clear was that the failure of the criminal justice system seems to have emboldened Ramachandran and Anbu to carry on with their killing spree.
According to police records, they committed four murders and staged an attempt to murder.
The spate of killings was an act of revenge for the murder of Anbu’s wife, Jhansi Rani, by a seven-member gang on December 13, 1995.
The gang, including Mariappan and Muthu, had manhandled Jhansi before killing her, and looted nearly 60 sovereigns of jewels from the house at Korukkupet.
Seeking vengeance, Anbu allegedly organised the killings starting with Mariappan and Muthu.
Police records show that Mariappan and Muthu were arrested for Jhansi’s murder on February 19 and 22, 1996 respectively.
As is known now, they were murdered sometime later that year, soon after they came out on bail.
However, without knowing this, Korukkupet police had filed the chargesheet against them in May 2, 1998.
Subsequently, Anbu and Ramachandran eliminated Murugan, a rowdy from Ayodiya Kuppam who helped them in their previous murders.
Anbu had also made an attempt to murder one Lakshmanan, yet another accused of his wife’s murder. He was also booked and chargesheeted for allegedly murdering his brother but was acquitted by a trial court.
Had police acted promptly and kept track of serious offenders, at least when filing chargesheet or after courts issue warrants, they would have come to know about Mariappan’s death in 1996, the first in the series of killings.
Now several years have passed, making it almost impossible for police to gather evidence for the decades-old murders despite confessions by the two.
Will they Walk Free?
After these many years, difficult for the police to even think of tracing the body and prove the nature of death
Even if they manage to find an eyewitness, defence can very well cite ageing human memory, which courts often tend to accept It is highly impossible to trace the material evidence like weapons used for the murders If the probe and trial takes the time it took in Jhansi Rani murder case, both the accused would be in their 70s when the court pronounces its verdict. Courts tend to take a lenient view considering age of the accused Even if the two accused confess before the court, it cannot pronounce them guilty in the absence of supporting material, circumstantial evidence or eyewitness