The Madras High Court has upheld life imprisonment awarded by a lower court to two trade union leaders for murdering a senior employee of a private company in Coimbatore in 2009 over a labour dispute.
The division bench comprising justices S Nagamuthu and N Authinathan, however, acquitted six others.
A sessions court for exclusive trial of bomb blast- related cases in Coimbatore had on December 3, 2015 sentenced nine persons to life imprisonment and acquitted another 17 people of all charges.
The bench recently upheld the conviction and life imprisonment of two labour union leaders, Manivannan and Ramamurthy.
According to prosecution, in September 2009 a group of labour union members had barged into the room of Roy J George, Vice-president of Human Resources Department at Pricol Ltd, Coimbatore and murdered him over a labour dispute.
Expressing dissatisfaction over the way police had recorded a delayed FIR in the case, the bench said, "In our opinion the earliest information has been suppressed by police. This creates further doubt in the case of the prosecution."
Pointing out that there were injured persons who had given the true version of the occurrence, the judges said the entire case of the prosecution could not be rejected solely on the ground that the FIR created doubts.
They also observed that the investigation officer had not discharged his function properly.
"The FIR in this case is not a contemporaneous document, as it is only a fabricated document by the sub-inspector of police and the inspector of police," the judges said.
"It is not explained what made the police why there was an inordinate delay in registering the case and an enormous delay in forwarding the same to the court," the bench said.
The charges framed against the accused too did not satisfy the legal requirements and flaying the prosecution the bench said, "We expect the prosecuting agency to scrupulously comply with Section 226 of CrPC at least in future."
Taking note of the fact that witnesses were subjected to harassment during cross-examination, the judges said, "All unnecessary, scandalous and harassing questions have been asked to one witness.
"We do not understand as to how the lower court judge was a silent spectator without making any intervention when the witnesses were harassed," the judges said.
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