The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Detention of four persons quashed

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Friday, Aug 05, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Detention of four persons quashed

Special Correspondent

Judges reject prosecutor's submission

CHENNAI: The detention of four persons, accused in the Sankararaman murder case, under the Goondas Act was quashed by the Madras High Court on Thursday.

The State Government had invoked the Goondas Act against a total of 15 persons accused in the case, and the High Court had quashed the detention of 11 of them by an order dated May 5, 2005.

Relying on the earlier order, a Division Bench comprising Justice P. Sathasivam and Justice A.R. Ramalingam said that in the absence of any stay by the Supreme Court, the May 5 order would be binding on them. "Though it is stated that the State has preferred an appeal before the Supreme Court, the fact remains that no order has been produced except information that Special Leave Petitions have been filed on July 30. In the absence of any order/stay by the Supreme Court, we are of the view that the conclusion arrived at by the Division Bench of this court is binding on us."

The earlier Bench had concluded that there was no material to show that there was disturbance to public order and the tempo of life was affected, and the detenus created a sense of insecurity and scare in the minds of the public.

Holding that these four detenus were entitled to the benefit of the conclusion arrived at by the earlier Bench, the Judges rejected the Additional Public Prosecutor, Abudukumar Rajarathinam's submission that the Bench did not consider the "individual act of each detenue."

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