Coimbatore blasts: Prosecutors quarrel with judge

In what may be unprecedented in Indian judicial history, Special Public Prosecutors B K Ashokan and S Rajamanickam walked out of a special court trying the accused in the Coimbatore serial blasts case.

In an equally rare occurrence, presiding Judge R Sivakumar examined witnesses in the absence of the public prosecutors. Both have since taken up their case to the Madras high court.

The trouble started with Judge Sivakumar insisting on the prosecutors following certain norms during the examination of witnesses.

He has been saying so for some time now as there have been unexplained absence of certain witnesses until the very last minute, resulting in sudden changes to the order in which witnesses were being examined.

In fact, it was at Sivakumar's instance that a detailed list of witnesses to be examined was drawn some time back, which the public prosecutors were expected to adhere to in full.

Over the past two years since the trial commenced, only 272 of the 2000-odd witnesses have been examined.

But for this arrangement, the examination of witnesses could have taken 8-10 years, says a defence counsel.

The counsel also credits Judge Sivakumar with putting the case on the fast track by ensuring appointment of government-sponsored counsel for all the accused.

This job itself was pending for some time owing to various reasons.

The procedure laid down by Judge Sivakumar would have ensured that examination of witnesses could be completed in about a year's time.

However, the prosecutors did not seem keen to cooperate.

On Tuesday (Feb 4), they got into a heated  argument with Judge Sivakumar, who objected to the lack of details about the witnesses to be examined and wondered if the prosecution was 'tutoring' the witnesses.

This was a strong observation, even more so considering the sensitive nature of the case.

Going a step further, he also accused the prosecutors of adopting delaying tactics.

Perturbed, the two prosecutors walked out in a huff, swearing in public that they would never return to the court as long as Judge Sivakumar presided over it.

Both sides said they would take up the issue with the high court.

Later in the afternoon session, the SPPs did not turn up for the proceedings. However, the judge went on to examine the witnesses on the stand, which the prosecutors objected to.

This is not the first time that the prosecutors have clashed with the judge.

Judge Sivakumar has frequently ticked off the prosecution for not producing the accused on time, or not producing them at all, citing security reasons.

The prosecution side claims that the security considerations are real, and that at other times some of the accused have reported sick.

February 14 will be the fifth anniversary of the blasts that claimed 59 lives, but the accused are yet to see any possibility of an end to their misery.

Among them are about 36 men from Coimbatore's Majid Nagar locality, picked up by the police on the day of the blasts.

They were told that they would be released after interrogation, their womenfolk claim.

Some of them, they said, were teenagers at the time of the incident. Some of the accused are not directly accused of involvement in the blasts, but in the rioting that followed.

However, the women denied any rioting took place and wanted the riots accused to be tried separately.