THE HINDU EDITORIAL

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Systemic reckoning: On the verdict in the Sattankulam murder case

The Sattankulam verdict should sensitise the police against use of excessive force

 

That the policemen felt entitled was evident when a Judicial Magistrate found the atmosphere at the station hostile and “intimidating”. Justices P.N. Prakash and B. Pugalendhi of the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court, having taken suo motu cognisance, in an extraordinary direction, asked revenue officials to take control of the station to safeguard evidence. The turning point came when a head constable, Revathi, testified against her colleagues. The CBI established that blood samples recovered from the station matched the victims’ DNA, while call data records confirmed the presence of both the victims and the accused at the time of the crime, sealing the case. The trial court appears to have applied uniform proportionality in assigning culpability to all accused. This may not withstand scrutiny in higher courts, as seen in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, where the Supreme Court, in 1999, upheld the death sentences of only four of the 26 convicted by the TADA court. Nonetheless, the convictions should help sensitise the police force that excesses will not go unpunished.