The Hindu : Prisoner acquitted at adalat

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Nov 17, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Tamil Nadu-Chennai

Prisoner acquitted at adalat

By A. Subramani

CHENNAI NOV. 16. All 96 cases taken up for hearing were disposed of by IX metropolitan magistrate, V.P. Ravindran, at a fortnightly adalat conducted in the Chennai central prison yesterday.

Two unique features of the proceedings were the presence of two women prisoners— Sowdammal and Marthammal of Chennai— and the first-ever acquittal of another prisoner, Seenivasan (25).

The women, convicted for petty theft cases, had been brought from the Vellore central prison to the Saidapet sub-jail, where they pleaded guilty before Mr. Ravindran. They were sentenced to two-month simple imprisonment. But as they had already served the sentence, they would be released immediately. The magistrate also extended the remand for 105 prisoners.

Seenivasan was acquitted in the absence of proper charges and evidence. A co-accused was already acquitted by a regular court. For Seenivasan, the acquittal came three months late. He has been in jail for three months now.

A total of 46 prisoners would benefit from this adalat, and the sentence they had already undergone would be set off under Section 428 of the Cr.PC. This means most of them could be released immediately.

`No chargesheets'

As usual, 56 cases, mostly from police stations coming under the George Town and Egmore metropolitan magistrate court jurisdiction, could not be taken up for hearing, as the police had not filed charge sheets.

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