For the five persons arraigned in the sensational ‘Uchipulli six murder case’ and discharged from the case on the orders of the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court, the relief came from heaven.
In dramatic turn of events, Justice S. Nagamuthu discharged the five accused – A. Vellaichamy, Sendru alias Nagarajan, K. Mangalanathan, T. Kumar and N. Panchachalam – after Superintendent of Police N.M. Mylvahanan made further probe in the case and filed a report before the court, stating that the five accused had nothing to do with the case. Besides, the Judge suo motu directed the State government to pay a compensation of Rs. 10 lakh to the five persons for their wrongful confinement. The SP had conducted further probe in the case on the orders of the Judge, when A. Sujakani, arraigned as the seventh accused in the case, filed an appeal, seeking to discharge him from the case.
Right from day one, the five persons were maintaining that they had nothing to do with the case and that they were falsely implicated by the police, advocate K.N. Karunakaran, the counsel for two of them, said. They were stuck in disbelief when he conveyed on Thursday night that the High Court had discharged them from the case, he said, and quoted them as saying “the God has answered our prayers and saved us”. Thanks to the further probe done by the SP, the flaws in the investigation came to the fore, the advocate said.
The five were not in a position to move the High Court and file discharge petitions as they hailed from poor background, Mr. Karunakaran said. He and other advocates used to pay for their bus fare when they visited the courts during the hearings, he added.
Mr. Mylvahanan said that after completing further probe in the case, he had filed the additional charge sheet in the Mahila Court and filed the compliance report to the High Court. The four accused in the case would now be tried on the basis of the additional charge sheet, he said, citing the court order.
