HC upholds acquittal of 25 accused in murder of convict

The Madras High Court today confirmed the acquittal of 25 accused in a case related to the country bomb attack on a police van and hacking to death of a life convict while being taken back to jail after appearance in a court in Puducherry in 2012.
A division bench comprising justices S Nagamuthu and Anita Sumanth upheld the December 12, 2014 order of a Sessions court in Puducherry acquitting the accused and dismissed the appeal filed by the police.
"Though the prosecution has succeeded in establishing that a crowd of people came to the place of occurrence, hurled bombs, entered into the Police van and killed the accused, there is no evidence that these accused were the perpetrators of the crime. Thus the prosecution has failed to prove the charges against the accused," it said.

According to prosecution, Jegan alias Jagannathan alias Jayakrishnan, a life convict lodged in sub-jail at Karaikkal, was brought to the Judicial Magistrate Court in Puducherry for production in connection with another case on August 10, 2012.
While being taken back to jail in a police van, a gang of people who came in cars started hurling country bombs on the vehicle. Some of the accused got into the van and hacked Jegan with knives and threw country bombs, killing him on the spot.