Wrongly Convicted Database Record
|
Charge: |
Robbery (includes armed robbery) |
Sentence: |
|
Years Imprisoned: |
|
Year Crime: |
1998 |
Year Convicted: |
|
Year Cleared: |
2015 |
U.S. State or Country of Crime: |
India |
County or Region of Crime: |
Tamil Nadu |
City of Crime: |
Cumbum |
Result: |
Judicially Exonerated |
Summary of Case: |
"Five people were wrongly convicted of robbery and robbery with attempt to cause death or grievous injury during a robbery in India's state of Tamil Nadu. The men's prosecution was based on the robbery of Rs.1.87 lakh from the driver of a van returning to Cumbum after the driver had delivered grapes to a merchant in Kerala on April 26, 1998, The men appealed. In December 2015 Madras High Court Justice P.R. Shivakumar wrote the Court's ruling that the trial judge prejudicially erred because two charges were duplicitous for which the defendants had been convicted and separately sentenced (Sections 392 and Sections 397). Justice Shivakumar wrote: "Without considering the fact that Section 397 of IPC is not an independent penal provision and it should only be read with Section 392, the learned judge seems to have imposed separate punishment for Section 397. That itself will show the improper approach made by the learned Judicial Magistrate and even non-application of mind to the penal provisions, The above said observation is made to strengthen the conclusion that even though the prosecution had miserably failed to prove its case that the accused were the persons who committed the highway robbery , the learned trial judge rendered an erroneous finding with premeditation and blindfolded. (High Court pulls up trial court for wrong conviction, The Hindu newspaper, December 16, 2015). Justice Shivakumar noted the trial court committed a grave error by convicting the five defendants in the absence of substantial evidence to prove their guilt beyond a reasonable doubt." |
Conviction Caused By: |
Errors by the trial judge. |
Innocence Proved By: |
In December 2015 the Madras High Court overturned the convictions of the five defendant's based on the prosecutions failure to introduce substantial evidence to prove their guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. |
Defendant Aided By: |
|
Compensation Awarded: |
|
Was Perpetrator Identified? |
|
Age When Imprisoned: |
|
Age When Released: |
|
Sex: |
Male |
Skin/Ethnicity: |
|
Information Source 1: |
"High Court pulls up trial court for wrong conviction, By Mohamed Imranullah S., The Hindu (Madras, India), December 16, 2015" |
Information Location 1: |
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/high-court-pulls-up-trial-court-for-wrong-conviction/article7994022.ece |
Information Source 2: |
|
Information Location 2: |
|
Information Source 3: |
|
Information Location 3: |
|
Information Source 4: |
|
Information Location 4: |
|
Information Source 5: |
|
Information Location 5: |
|
Book About Case: |
|
Book Information: |
|
Book About Case (2): |
|
Book Information (2): |
|
Movie About Case: |
|
Comments About Case: |
Innocents Database Created and Maintained by Hans Sherrer innocents@forejustice.org