Udumalpet case: HC orders day-to-day trial

Chennai: More than three months after Shankar, a Dalit youth, was hacked to death in Udumalpet while he was returning home from a shop with his wife, Kausalya, who belonged to another community, the Madras high court has declined to release on bail a person charged with identifying the couple to the killers. It has also ordered day-to-day trial in the case, and made it clear that adjournments, if any, should not exceed two working days.
Kausalya and Shankar were attacked by six assailants who came in a couple of two-wheelers on a street near the central bus stand at Udumalpet on March 13.While Shankar died on the spot, Kausalya survived with grievous injuries.
The present petition, filed by V Prasanna Kumar of Palani, said he was an innocent bystander who had nothing to do with the murder. suspected to have been planned and carried out by Kausalya's family members. The prosecution, however, had cited Prasanna Kumar as the tenth accused and said, "It is he who identified the couple prior to the occurrence at the scene of the crime to the henchmen." Police said Prasanna Kumar was studying II year B.Com at Vidhyasagar College in Udumalapet, and he did not attend his classes after the incident. He was absconding.
Justice S Vaidyanathan, citing prosecution claim, said, "to substantiate it, CCTV footage, which is the main evidence, speaks about the presence of the petitioner at SoC and the involvement of the petitioner/accused (A10) in the murder." Police the accused had hatched a criminal conspiracy and committed a day-light murder by attacking the couple.
Shankar's father filed an intervener petition opposing bail to Prasanna Kumar, and said the marriage of Kausalya and Shankar took place on July 11, 2015, and that they lodged police complaint with all women police station in Udumalpet the next day apprehending threat to their lives. Kausalya's family members were called to police station, but let off after they gave an undertaking that they would not interfere with the couple's lives. In his present petition, the father said that had the police acted in a responsible manner at the first instance, Shankar could have been saved. He further said their family was incapable of facing money and muscle power of the accused, and that they were facing imminent threat from the side of the accused.