The Madras High Court has reserved its verdict on an appeal preferred by a group of 21 students of Dr. Ambedkar Government Law College who were convicted by a lower court here on January 28, 2016, for a violent clash between two groups on the campus on November 12, 2008 over the printing of pamphlets for Thevar Jayanthi.
Justice R. Suresh Kumar deferred his decision, without mentioning a date on which the judgment would be delivered, after hearing the arguments advanced on behalf of the appellants as well as the prosecution. The trial court itself had suspended the three-year sentence imposed on the 21 convicts in order to enable them to go on appeal to the High Court.
The convicts urged the High Court to set aside the conviction as well as the sentence imposed on them in view of a compromise reached. The clash on the campus raised many eyebrows in 2008 when the police were accused of being spectators.
It forced the State government to set up a one-man commission, headed by retired High Court judge P. Shanmugham who after a detailed enquiry, recommended departmental action against some police personnel for dereliction of duty. After trial, an Additional Sessions Court too ordered action against the investigating officer for his commissions and omissions.
Immediately after the incident, the police registered two First Information Reports on the basis of separate complaints lodged on behalf of the two groups that had clashed on the campus. The Sessions Court, on appreciation of evidence, acquitted as many as 22 accused from the case and convicted 21 of them besides sentencing them to three years of imprisonment.
