Madras High Court summons parents of college students arrested in murder case

The Madras High Court on Tuesday summoned the parents of a group of college students who had allegedly chased a student of another college at the Chennai central suburban railway station and assaulted him leading to his death at the Rajiv Gandhi General Hospital (RGGH) on October 9.

Justice A.D. Jagadish Chandira called for the parents when the bail petitions filed by two of the arrested students of Pachaiyappa’s College were listed for hearing. On being told that a few more arrested students too had filed similar petitions, he decided to hear all of them together on November 14.

When the petitioners’ counsel pleaded for leniency citing the fact that the accused were college students, the judge lamented the recurrence of criminal acts involving college goers despite the courts making them do social service in hospitals and such other work as part of the bail conditions.

The judge said, a wrong impression should not be created in the minds of college goers that the courts would anyway grant them bail by asking them to do some social work at a hospital or a similar place for a short period of time. This time, he wanted to interact with the parents before taking a call on the bail plea.

A government counsel brought it to the notice of the court that the deceased in the present case was 21-year-old A. Sundar of Tiruttani in Tiruvallur district. The youngster had obtained a diploma in mechanical engineering before joining a graduate course in political science at the Presidency College in Chennai.

He used to commute from Tiruttani to Chennai on a daily basis in the suburban train. On October 4, 2024, a group of Pachaiyappa’s College students had chased him and his friends at the Chennai central suburban railway station when they were waiting to board a train back to their homes in the afternoon.

While the friends of the deceased managed to escape, he tripped and fell down near an ATM kiosk. The assailants caught hold of him and assaulted him indiscriminately until the Railway police rushed to the spot on hearing the cry of the onlookers. The victim was provided first aid and taken to the RGGH.

It was at the hospital that the victim’s father E. Anandan, a daily wager, lodged a complaint against the assailants. Acting on the basis of the complaint, the Periamet police registered a case under Section 109 (attempt to murder) and other provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

However, after the victim succumbed to the injuries at the hospital four days later, the charge was altered to Section 103 (murder) of BNS, the court was told.