MADURAI: Disappointed with a group of engineering students who witnessed the gruesome murder of a fellow girl student but turned hostile during trial, the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court observed that students will only become paper tigers in real life if they merely express their dissent and opinions on social media and choose not to act on it.
"The students had let down the deceased by not supporting the case of the prosecution and thus they failed in their duty to uphold truth," the court said.
A bench of justices N Anand Venkatesh and KK Ramakrishnan made the observations while dismissing an appeal filed by P Udayakumar, who was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for murder, by a Fast Track Mahila Court in Karur in February 2022.
According to the prosecution, Udayakumar and the deceased were students of the engineering college and were in a relationship, but the latter chose to end it after sometime. Enraged by this, on August 30, 2016, Udayakumar trespassed into the girl's classroom and attacked her indiscriminately with a log, causing grievous injuries which resulted in her death. He also attacked and injured an assistant professor who tried to stop him.
Based on a complaint lodged by the professor, Karur town police arrested him and he was found guilty in 2022. Challenging his sentence, Udayakumar moved the high court in 2023. His counsel argued that the assistant professor was new to the college and could not have known Udayakumar, who had dropped out of the college due to lack of attendance.
In the absence of a test identification parade, it is wholly unbelievable that the professor identified Udayakumar in the court, he added. He also cited certain discrepancies in the investigation and the statements of the other witnesses.
However, the judges rejected the contentions by observing that the test identification parade is only a tool for investigation and has no place in court. They also opined that there was nothing unreasonable in an injured eye witness being able to identify his attacker in court despite not knowing him before the incident. The other discrepancies pointed out by Udayakumar's counsel did not affect the prosecution's case, they further held and confirmed the trial court's order.
Further, the judges said they were disappointed with the attitude of the students who witnessed the attack yet did not try to stop the accused even from fleeing the spot. Though their statements were recorded under Section 164 CrPC, they gave contrary statements before the court during trial, the judges noted.
"The student community must understand that it is only a matter of time that a similar incident may happen to any student in a college in such a gruesome fashion. There is no use in merely expressing dissent and expressing views in social media and it has to translate itself into action or else the students will only become paper tigers in real life," the judges criticised.
If this is the type of attitude that was exhibited by the so-called educated students, who were doing engineering courses, it means that education did not really build up a character to the students and rather each of the students, who turned hostile exhibited pusillanimity, they further remarked and passed the above order.
