A day after arguing that a murder charge could not be made out against the accused in the Maruti violence case, senior advocate Rebecca John took forward the arguments on Tuesday and contended that the accused could at maximum be prosecuted for voluntarily causing grievous hurt.
‘Recoveries manufactured’
Ms. John also cast serious doubts on the recoveries made by the police saying that it was all “tailor-made” and “manufactured”.
The advocate, who represents the former Maruti Suzuki Workers’ Union office-bearers, took up the individual roles of the thirteen accused before the court of Additional District and Sessions Judge R. P. Goyal and argued that they faced allegations of assault, exhortation and setting the premises on fire, but none of them could be charged with murder or attempt to murder.
Argument for acquittal
“Two of the accused Sandeep and Dhanraj only face charges of exhortation and should be immediately acquitted. Similarly, Jia Lal and Sohan face allegations of setting the premises on fire, but the same could not be proved and should be acquitted,” argued Ms. John
“The remaining have been accused of causing injuries to non-vital organs of management officials and thus cannot be charged with murder or attempt to murder,” said Ms. John, adding that most of these accused were either not identified correctly or were identified without any role attributed to them.
On the recoveries made from the accused, Ms. John said that the prosecution had failed to explain as to how these weapons (shockers and door beams) reached the hands of the accused.
Ms. John said that the recovery of these weapons from the homes of the accused more than five to six days after their arrest was suspicious. “There is no independent witness to the recovery ,” said Ms. John.
The advocate added that as per the doctors treating the injured executives, the injuries inflicted on them could also be caused by fall on uneven or hard surface and none of the doctors were shown the “weapons of offence” as required by law. Ms. John said that the police had conducted the “shoddiest” possible investigation into the case.
