'Adjourned More Than 50 Times, Witnesses Are Senior Citizens': Madras High Court Expedites Trial In 2013 Murder Of BJP Leader Ramesh

V Ramesh, an auditor by profession and the Tamil Nadu unit General Secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was hacked to death in 2013. The mother of the deceased Ramesh had approached the Madras High Court seeking directions to the trial court to dispose of the case in an expeditious manner.

She claimed that the deceased was targeted by Islamic terrorists and was a victim of a series of killings against members of the Hindutva group. It was further submitted that even though the occurrence took place in 2013, the chargesheet was filed only in 2014. Since the eyewitnesses of the incident were senior citizens aged more than 80 years, the petitioner sought direction for speedy disposal.

Justice RN Manjula noted that even though charges were framed in 2014, the case was pending for all these years. The court also expressed anguish over the fact that the case had been adjourned more than fifty times for counseling. The court added that even if the counseling was to be given to the victims, the same should not have affected the trial.

It is not known what kind of counselling is given and for whom. Even if the counselling is presumed to have been given to the victim, that cannot be a bar for the conduction of the case.

The court added that since the key witnesses were senior citizens, the trial court should act in a responsible manner and should examine the senior citizen witnesses as expeditiously as possible. The court noted that the trial court had shown insensitivity in conducting one of the oldest matters pending before the trial court.

Since the proceedings would reveal the insensitivity in conducting one of the oldest matters pending in the Court, I feel it is appropriate to impress the learned Judge, Sessions Court for Exclusive Trial of Bomb blast / NIA cases, Poonamallee, to dispose the case within a time frame.

Thus, the court directed the trial court to conduct the proceeding within a period of two months by posting the case on a day-to-day basis and if needed by adjourning the case not beyond two or three days.

Case Title: V Kamala v. The State of Tamil Nadu and others

Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Mad) 54