CHENNAI, March 13: A division bench of the Madras High Court has admitted an appeal from `Welding' Kumar and five others challenging the order of the lower court awarding life sentence to them and praying for a re-trial in the `advocate Shanmugasundaram assault case'.The bench comprising Justice S Jagadeesan and Justice A Raman admitted the appeal on Thursday and ordered notices to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Madras High Court Advocates' Association (MHAA). In their appeal, the six accused, Kumar, Senthil, Arumugam, Bhaskar, Navaneethakrishnan and Raghu, contended that the September 17, 1997 order of the VI Additional Sessions Judge, Chennai, awarding life imprisonment ran contrary to law.
The appellants sought a direction that the High Court should order a retrial into the case as the Sessions Judge had overlooked the basic background in which the investigation was pursued by CBI.
According to them, the MHAA acted as a pressure group and attempted to interfere with judicialproceedings, which influenced the investigative process to the prejudice of the accused. The Sessions Judge had failed to take judicial note of the fact that the CBI's Inspector of Police M Jayarajan had played a vital role in torturing `Welding' Kumar for securing a confession statement implicating former Chief Minister J Jayalalitha and her close associate Sasikala and others connected with them in the offence.
The judge had erred in giving extraordinary importance to the word `Amma' allegedly uttered by the assailants and a political colour was given to the same. `Welding' Kumar was tortured to extract a confession to suit the requirements of the prosecution. In view of the pressure exerted by the MHAA, the judge had adopted a totally non-judicious approach in analysing the evidence, they said.
Awarding life sentence to them is arbitrary and harsh as the victim had lost only his little finger in the assault, they further contended.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
