MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court refused to quash the proceedings against one of the accused in an attempt to murder case, though the co-accused were acquitted by the trial court.
Justice B Pugalendhi was hearing a petition filed by Tamilarasan, one of the accused in the attempt to murder case of scheduled caste boys. The incident happened on January 1, 2014, when the defacto complainant was celebrating his birthday by cutting cake in front of a community hall along with the others. The accused, including Tamilarasan, allegedly abused them by degrading their community, and assaulted the youths.
Based on their complaint, a case was booked against the persons under various sections, including the SC/ST (POA) Act, in Vadakadu police station limit in Pudukkottai. When the case was taken up by the trial court, few of the accused failed to turn up. Hence, the trial court split the case into two, where the first six accused were treated as one batch and the remaining accused as the second.
District and Sessions Court (Special Court for SC/ST (POA) Act Cases of Pudukottai) acquitted the first batch of accused in the case in March 2019. Hence, the petitioner of the case, Tamilarasan, filed an application before the high court seeking to quash the proceeding. His counsel submitted that both the charges and witnesses were similar. Hence, Tamilarasan can be acquitted in the case as the main accused of the cases were acquitted. The trial is unnecessary and a waste of judicial time, the counsel added.
Hearing the submissions, the court said if the witnesses have not supported the case of the prosecution against the first six accused, it could not be presumed that the witnesses would take a similar stand again. The charges were also different. Hence, the court refused to quash the petition and said the case has to be decided on its own merits, the court said.