20 years later, a vakeel walks in

CHENNAI: There was no seizure of weapon, nor scientific evidence to prove the attack had happened. While these were matters of routine in several such cases that come before a sessions court, what caught the attention of Assistant Sessions judge, Tambaram, S Meenakshi, was that the complainant casually agreed in court that he was paid Rs 5,000 by the police.

It requires no expert to assume the value of Rs 5,000 back in 2001. The judge didn’t mince her words. “This raises suspicion on the prosecution’s case as there was no necessity for the police to give Rs 5,000 to the complainant. This leads the court to assume that the complainant may be a stock witness of the police.”

This was the prosecution’s case: On June 8, 2001, the complainant, Mohan, was at work at his leather company when the accused, M Karuna came there and attacked him over a previous enmity. According to the prosecution, Mohan suffered injuries on his left forearm and fingers and on his head.

Karuna, who did not have the means to engage a lawyer, had argued his cases himself (party-in-person). Few months ago, when Karuna was brought to the court in Tambaram from Cuddalore prison for trial in this case, the Assistant Sessions judge had enquired whether he needs the assistance of a lawyer, to which he said, No.

Advocate BA Chandrasekar, who was at the same court for a different case when this exchange was happening, became intrigued. Karuna told the court that the case had been underway for over 20 years and he has been in jail all along.

When the court asked him if he had been in jail for this offence, he said that he was convicted in a murder case, but since then, police have filed many cases against him to ensure the trial extends and he remains in prison. Karuna was arrested on murder charges by the Chromepet police in 1997, for which he was convicted and sentenced for life imprisonment in 2004.

According to his family members, Chromepet police again arrested Karuna under false charges to have a hold on him. By shifting him to different prisons across the State, they’ve also delayed trial in the other cases ensuring that he remained in prison.

“He was appealing to the judge that the court-appointed lawyers, at times, do not make a spirited defense and that he has been in jail for over 20 years. That’s what bothered me. The maximum punishment for an attempt-to-murder charge is 7 years. Our system has a citizen imprisoned for so long,” said Chandrasekar.

He sent his junior to approach Karuna and ask him whether if he could represent him in the case. When Karuna agreed, he had the chance to go through the case sheets over the years and the arguments put forth by him.

“As soon as I got the case sheets, I knew that this is no layman. All his years of imprisonment, he had used it to read up on law among other things and had made many valid arguments,” Chandrasekar recalled and was particularly impressed with the chaste Tamil words which Karuna had used in his arguments.

By exhaustively reading the case sheets, he knew, without a shadow of doubt, that the prosecution had no case, which in fact was deduced by the prisoner himself while examining the investigating officer’s (IO) statement in the case. “It was clear that police had never taken any statements from the alleged victim despite visiting him more than once at the hospital,” Chandrasekar said.

When the witness Mohan (M) was recalled for cross examination, Chandrasekar questioned him whether police visited him in the hospital.

M: Yes

C: Oh, How many times?

M: Twice or Thrice

C: Thrice? Did they give you fruits or Boost or Horlicks when they visited?

M: No

C: Oh. Then, did they give you money?

M: Yes

C: Yes? How much?

M: Rs 5,000

This revelation in open court, more or less, sealed the deal for the defense. The court did not miss the fact that the IO did not seize the weapon used for the attack or send the leather sheets with Mohan’s blood stains for forensic examinations.

When the court questioned the IO as to why the blood-stained leather sheets seized from the crime scene were not sent to the Forensic Department, he replied: “The sheets are made of leather. I was told it’d contain chemicals on it, which would not make it possible to study blood stains on such sheets.”

This received a sharp rebuke from the court. “This excuse given by the IO is found to be lame, because it’s not his job to merely dismiss an important part of evidence on the grounds that it’d not prove fruitful even if such an investigation is done upon that piece of evidence,” the judge noted and gave a sermon on the right procedure to follow in such cases.

“The correct procedure in such a case would have been to have sent such leather sheets to the Forensic Department, which would determine whether blood samples in those leather sheets could be studied/identified due to the presence of chemicals in the leather sheets, and submit a report on it. This process was not attempted by the IO,” the court noted and acquitted Karuna from the case.

As for Chandrasekar, he has moved on to his regular practice. The IO in this case has retired and is living in a West Asian country. Karuna still remains in Cuddalore prison.

Murder convict a model prisoner, stands up for inmates’ rights

By most metrics, Karuna (52) is a model prisoner. He has completed over 10 courses while being imprisoned. He’s among the regulars in the prison library and is always seen devouring books.

He has been imprisoned for over 20 years. He has never been included in the list of prisoners considered for premature release.

Advocate BA Chandrasekar who argued for Karuna in the ‘Rs 5,000 case’ vouched for Karuna’s legal acumen too. “Karuna did most of the hard work while he argued his case as party-in-person to make it easier for me,” he stated.

When Chandrasekar got the case sheets in the now-embarrassing case for the police, he was mildly amused on seeing Karuna’s written arguments for the prosecution. “The legal posers were on point. He had used the chaste Tamil word Eeruruli referring to a motorbike,” recalled the lawyer.

In fact, Chandrasekar told in open court that Karuna’s cross-examination of the Investigating Officer Inspector Sardar was one of the crucial leads. It was only later that he learnt that Karuna had been a boxer and remains quite respected and well-known in his world.

While Karuna was originally convicted for murder, in the eyes of his family and neighbourhood, he remains a righteous man who stood up to justice. According to his daughter, Tamizh Thendral, Karuna stood up to a thug who used to harass local traders.

“That’s how my father got convicted in the murder case, for standing up to a hoodlum. Standing up for justice is the reason he has been in jail for over 20 years, as he’d question prison authorities for their using excess force on inmates or provide substandard food,” she told DT Next.

Karuna, who dropped out of a BA course in Presidency College, insisted that his children finish college to help people who can’t help themselves. Of his 3 children, two – Tamizh Prabhakar and Tamizh Thendral are advocates and have recently enrolled.

“He’s very fond of Tamil and even the grandchildren in our family are named proper Tamil names. Despite being locked up, he has managed to remain spirited. Even during the brief period when he appears for trial, he either suggests a book we must read, or narrates something interesting from the books he had read,” recalled Thendral.

P Pugalenthi, director of Prisoner Rights Forum, said that another suspect in the case in which Karuna was convicted was released recently, and had asked the government to consider Karuna’s release too.

“Politicians are not aware of what happens inside prisons. Yes, prison can be a place for rehabilitation, but correctional service remains only on paper. It’s entirely up to prison officials to decide an inmate’s fate and those decisions seem to be made on the whims and fancies of prison officers,” Pugalenthi opined.

In Karuna’s case, even recently, he was admonished for questioning a jail staff who assaulted a prisoner.

“If the food served is not good, I make a peaceful protest. I can’t help it,” Karuna told DT Next.

Pugalenthi pointed out that except for the restriction of free movement, prisoners are entitled to all basic rights, but reality is very different in prisons.

With Chief Minister MK Stalin’s recent promise to consider the appeal by the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) to release the Muslim inmates imprisoned for more than 20 years, Karuna’s family hopes that his case will be considered too.

“We’ve written to the CM’s cell several times to at least shift our father to Puzhal prison from Cuddalore so that we can meet him often. Even that is not considered,” lamented Karuna’s son, Tamizh Prabhakaran.

However, Karuna has not allowed the high walls to bog down his spirit. “In recent times, I’ve also started learning to play the keyboard,” Karuna smiled.