HC dismisses Sattankulam case accused plea to recall witnesses for cross examination

The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has dismissed two petitions filed by Raghu Ganesh, an accused in the Sattankulam custodial deaths case of trader P. Jayaraj and his son J. Benicks. The accused had challenged the trial court order that dismissed his applications filed to recall two witnesses for cross examination.

Suspended Sub-Inspector of Police Raghu Ganesh had filed two applications before the trial court, the First Additional District and Sessions Court in Madurai to recall two witnesses for cross examination: the doctor who conducted postmortem of the deceased Jayaraj and Benicks and the Judicial Magistrate, Sattankulam, who recorded the statement of a witness. Both the applications were taken up together by the trial court and dismissed. Challenging the same, the petitions were filed before the High Court.

The Special Public Prosecutor appearing for the CBI submitted that repeated directions were issued by the High Court to complete the trial process, but it could not be completed because of the marathon cross examination made by the accused.

Justice G. Ilangovan dismissed the two petitions filed by Raghu Ganesh and observed that the orders passed by the trial court were perfectly legal and no interference was called for. The court confirmed the orders passed by the trial court.

Published - October 22, 2024 09:23 pm IST