MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras HC recently granted bail to a man and his family members in an assault case, after he claimed the case was foisted at the instance of some encroachers as he has been filing Public Interest Litigations to remove encroachments made by them on three waterbodies in his village A Vellalapatti in Madurai since 2012.
Justice B Pugalendhi passed the order on the appeals filed by M Gopalakrishnan, and his relatives challenging an order passed by a Sessions Court in Madurai rejecting their bail plea.
Noting that the accused have also been booked for the murder of a witness in the assault case, the judge directed the trial court to try both cases together.
The assault* case was registered in 2020 under various sections of IPC and SC/ST Act, on charges that the accused had assaulted Lakshmanan, son-in-law of one of the encroachers Kusalavan, and Suresh, who had purchased the property from Kusalavan.
Since Suresh, who was added as witness in the assault case, was found dead near Melur in 2022, the bail granted to the accused were cancelled and they were booked for Suresh’s murder.