Ending the 13-year-long proceedings, the Sub-Court here on Friday, convicted four accused involved in a train robbery case and awarded five-year rigorous imprisonment to each.
Holding that the prosecution had proved the case beyond reasonable doubt in respect of four of the 10 accused arraigned in the case, Sub Judge M. Chandran convicted K. Suresh, N. Saravanan, R. Suresh and A. Sakthi alias Sakthivel under Section 395 of the Indian Penal Code while acquitting six other accused.
Fine imposed
The Judge, who imposed a fine of Rs. 1 lakh on each, said they had to undergo one more year of imprisonment if they failed to pay the fine. If they paid the total fine amount of Rs. 4 lakh, Rs 3.6 lakh should be paid to the victims of the robbery case and Rs. 40,000 to the government, he said.
The prosecution case was that V. Ramesh, a jewellery merchant in Tiruchi, and his assistant Balu were travelling from here to Tiruchi on Rameswaram-Tiruchi passenger train, carrying 1.820 kg of jewellery and Rs. 4.6 lakh cash on October 29, 2001, when the accused robbed them at knife-point.
After boarding the train, the gang members entered the reservation coach and robbed them after inflicting stab injuries on them. They stopped the train by pulling the chain near Chathirakudi and escaped under the cover of darkness, the prosecution said.
The Railway Police filed the charge sheet in the case on April 5, 2005, citing 42 prosecution witnesses and submitting material evidences.
After final arguments on March 9, the judge had reserved orders and pronounced the same on Friday. All the 10 accused were present in the court when the judge pronounced the order. The convicted were taken to Madurai Central Prison.
The judge said the jewellery merchant could get back the jewellery recovered by the Railway Police and kept in the court custody after producing necessary documents. If they failed to produce documents and Income Tax returns, the property could be handed over to the government exchequer, he added.
