P. PANDITHURAI Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Criminal Original Petition has been filed to withdraw the case in Spl. S.C. No.19 of 2016 on the file of the Principal District and Sessions Court, Tiruppur and transfer the same to any other Sessions Court competent to hear the same.

(2.) A gory incident took place in full public view in the afternoon of 13.03.2016 near the busy Central Bus Stand, Udumaplet, where, a Dalit boy was hacked to death for the sin of having married an upper caste Thevar girl.

(3.) The incident appears to have been captured in a video camera and it went viral in the social media shocking the collective conscience of the citizens. The police registered a case in Crime No.194 of 2016 and arrested 11 accused, including the parents of the Thevar girl and the alleged hirelings set up by them for conspiring to execute an honour killing. Investigation was completed and final report was filed before the jurisdictional Magistrate and the case now stands trial in S.C. No.19 of 2016 on the file of the Principal District and Sessions Court, Thiruppur for offences u/s 120(b), 147, 148, 302 r/w 149, 302 r/w 120(b) and 109, 307 r/w 149, 307 r/w 120(b) and 109, 307 r/w 149, 307 r/w 120(b) r/w 109 IPC and u/s 3(1)(r)(s) r/w 3(2)(Va) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act, 2015 and u/s 3(2) (Va), ibid. Except one accused, all the accused are in custody, bail having been refused for them. Charges were framed against the accused and on their pleading "not guilty", the Trial Court commenced with the examination of witnesses from 27.06.2016 onwards. Now, P. Pandithurai (A3) has filed the present petition for transferring the case in Spl.S.C. No.19 of 2016 from the file of the Principal District and Sessions Court, Thiruppur, to any other Court.