
CHENNAI: A few days after a trial court in Chennai awarded death sentence to the accused for murdering a girl by pushing her in front of a moving train at St Thomas Mount station in 2022, two other men accused of murdering their wives were acquitted by the same court because of failure by police to prove the charges.
The first of these two cases heard by the Mahila Court was regarding the daylight murder of Indulekha in December 2018 at Shenoy Nagar allegedly by David Kuzhanthaisamy (51) from whom she had got separated.
Accompanied by two friends, David had allegedly stopped her on the road, restrained her and then stabbed her multiple times with a knife, leading to her death. A confession statement of the accused was recorded, the knife was seized, and blood samples of the deceased were found on his jeans pants.
However, the investigating officers of Chetpet police station made crucial errors, according to the trial court. They were unable to prove to the court that the blood found on the murder weapon was of Indulekha. Moreover, David's accomplices, who were examined as prosecution witnesses, turned hostile before the court.
No evidence was provided by the police to show that David had restrained Indulekha on the road. In short, the court held that the prosecution failed miserably to prove the of fences against David beyond reasonable doubt, leading to his acquittal by the court in the ruling passed on January 8.
Similarly, on December 31, 2024, the Mahila Court acquitted Satthar Basha (42) who was charged by the Fort Police of allegedly dropping a grinding stone on his wife Uthirambal on October 28, 2022, after a domestic dispute in their house. Once the woman started screaming, her children came to her aid and rushed her to a hospital, where she eventually died. The son and daughter were cited as eyewitnesses. Uthirambal had also told the doctor treating her injury about the incident.
However, the trial court held that the eyewitnesses had deposed saying their mother had been injured. The court also said the investigating officers did not come up with any evidence to connect the accused with the occurrence and establish the crime. In effect, the court said though it was proven that Uthirambal died due to as sault by the grinding stone, the prosecution had failed to prove that the crime was committed by Basha.