Gaja protesters get relief, but not cop attackers

Quoting Avvaiyar from Moothurai about what all a man will lose when he is deprived of food and afflicted with hunger, Justice Anand Venkatesh said, “This is an extraordinary case where this court cannot deal with this case like a regular routine criminal case. The petitioners had lost their sense of balance and out of desperation, they never realised what they were doing”.

“There are no materials to show that there was any pre-meditation or criminal intent in carrying out the protest. The interest of justice requires interference with the criminal proceedings, since making the petitioners face a criminal prosecution for one solitary incident that took place under an extreme situation will amount to an abuse of process of court,” the judge said while quashing the two criminal original petitions against them in a Nagapattinam court. However, Justice Anand Venkatesh refused to intervene in a plea moved by 33 persons seeking to quash the proceeding pending against them at Thalainaiyuru police station in Vedaranyam Taluk. In the agitation held, they had reportedly beaten up around 13 policemen and damaged five vehicles including a government transport bus and an excavator.

Noting that if the reaction had stopped with agitations, gheraos or even damage to vehicles, this court would have exercised its jurisdiction to the fullest extent and interfered with the proceedings to do real and substantial justice to the parties, the judge said, “The reaction had reached the next level where the police personnel had been beaten black and blue by a mob and they have sustained injuries”.

Further pointing out that it should not be forgotten that the police personnel were equally affected due to the cyclone and they were also deprived of basic necessities, Justice Anand Venkatesh said, “This court by exercising its extraordinary jurisdiction, should not unwittingly bring down the morale of the police force. The police force must not think that this court had leaned in favour of the accused persons despite sufficient materials available against them to proceed further with the trial.”

The judge also recorded the attempt made to see if the State government can consider dropping the prosecution by taking into consideration the circumstances that were prevailing in this case. However, the State was hesitant to drop the prosecution only on the ground that it will demoralise the police force who were exposed to an extreme situation and while discharging their duty they had been beaten by the accused persons.