Defending the judiciary from bearing the brunt of public anger whenever courts acquit those accused of heinous crimes, the Madras High Court Bench here has said that people often fail to appreciate that courts could not convict anyone unless the police investigate cases properly and produce unassailable evidence.
Passing interim orders on a revision petition filed by a murder accused, Justice S. Nagamuthu said: “It often happens in this country that even in heinous crimes, the police bring to book some persons as the accused and the courts proceed with the trial only to ultimately acquit the accused for want of proof of their involvement in the crime.
“The society at large, without fully aware of the nature of the evidence produced by the police, at times, puts the blame on courts of law for acquitting the accused. The system is impelled to bear the ignominy. On that score, no Court of law can travel beyond the frame work of law to punish the accused where the investigation is shoddy...
“However... when the real culprits escape from clutches of law for want of evidence, the net result is the failure of justice to the victims and the society.
Therefore, in order to ensure justice, it becomes necessary in extreme cases that the Courts have to monitor the investigation which should otherwise be done by the superior police officers.”
The observations were made while ordering “further investigation” into the gruesome murder of a family of six, including four children and a woman, when they were fast asleep in their hut at Thoppuvilasai near Uchipuli in Ramanathapuram district on October 1, 2012 reportedly due to a land dispute between the victim family and a group of other villagers.
