Trial in bid on Balasingham’s life to continue

Justice PN Prakash set aside the submission of Balan seeking to quash the proceedings on the ground that 30 years had elapsed without any progress and several documents lost.

Balan’s counsel K Elangovan had submitted that except the petitioner, all the other accused are either dead or absconding and it is not known as to how many witnesses are alive and hence, the right of the 

petitioner under Article 21 of the Constitution of India for speedy trial has been infringed and therefore, the prosecution deserves to be quashed. He further submitted that Balasingham himself is dead.

Countering this, government counsel P Kritika Kamal submitted that apart from the approver, there are several other witnesses who are alive and just because some of the accused are dead or absconding, the prosecution cannot be quashed.

However, Justice Prakash, on holding that the allegations against the accused are very serious and it is alleged that they were passing secret information on India to their handlers in Lanka, said: “In the facts and circumstances of the present case, the prosecution cannot be quashed on the ground of delay. The loss of records cannot also be a good reason to quash a prosecution and that secondary evidence can be adduced in a case, where a document has been lost.”

“The death of Balasingham subsequently will not in any way enure to the advantage of the accused and the attempt on his life can be proved through other witnesses available,” Justice Prakash added.

As per the case, as many as six persons including VKT Balan planned to assassinate Balasingham and placed high-power explosives with a timer device at his house. The bomb exploded, but no one was injured. Of the accused, Kandasamy (A1) and Ranjan (A3) absconded after they were released on bail and it is reported that Ranjan (A3) is dead now. It is also reported that Manavai Thambi (A4) has died and Pavani (A5) is absconding. Premkumar (A6) was never arrested during the investigation and is shown in the complaint as an absconding accused. Only Balan (A2) is available for trial.