MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Wednesday quashed the FIR registered against two persons in connection with a head constable's death. The policeman died in December 2021 when a building collapsed on him while he was on patrol duty in Madurai.
Nagashankar and Subramanian, against whom the FIR has been quashed, were tenants in the building that collapsed. It was alleged that the duo's failure to vacate the building delayed the Corporation's demolition plan, and had in turn led to the policeman's death. They, along with a few other persons, were booked under sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) Part II and 338 (causing grievous hurt by an act of endangering life or personal safety of others) of the IPC.
However, Justice GR Swaminathan, hearing a petition filed by the duo seeking to quash the FIR, opined that it was the duty of the building's owner or the Madurai Corporation to demolish the building and the petitioners' failure to vacate, not being a direct cause of the incident, would not amount to a criminal offence.
"The petitioners can be morally blamed for having been in occupation of a dilapidated building even after the local body served demolition notice. But, this conduct does not meet the standards of criminal liability," he observed. The judge, however, clarified that the FIR is quashed only for the petitioners and that the prosecution procedures against the main accused would continue.