Madras High Court
J.V.Chezhiyan vs The Deputy Superintendent Of Police on 15 September, 2015
Author: P.N.Prakash
Bench: P.N.Prakash
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT MADRAS DATED 15.09.2015 CORAM THE HONOURABLE MR.JUSTICE P.N.PRAKASH Crl.OP.No.23189 of 2015 J.V.Chezhiyan .. Petitioner Vs The Deputy Superintendent of Police, Attur Sub Division, Salem District. .. Respondent Prayer:- Criminal Original Petition filed under Section 482 Cr.P.C., to call for the records in C.C.No.75 of 2015 on the file of the learned Judicial Magistrate No.I, Attur, Salem District and quash the criminal proceeding. For Petitioners : Mr.E.kannadasan For Respondent : Mr.C.Emalias, Additional Public Prosecutor. ORDER
This petition is filed to quash the proceedings in C.C.No.75 of 2015 on the file of the learned Judicial Magistrate No.I, Attur, Salem District.
2. Heard the learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned Additional Public Prosecutor appearing for the respondent.
3. The prosecution case has been very fairly stated in the final report that has been filed by the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Attur Sub Division, Salem District, which is as follows:
The marginally noted accused is the owner of the JVS Extract Company situated at Kallankattupudur which is within the jurisdiction of Attur P.S. The marginally noted accused, being partner of Educational Institutions situated near Kallakurichi, appointed one Mohanraj a Chemist as Manager to look after the company and the company is manufacturing herbal products for medicinal values by using coleus tuber and for the sake of herbal products methodology, Hydro corbon solvents especially toluene and Hexane are used for the extraction process in various steps.
During the preparation of Herbal powder the extracted materials of coleus tuber by the solvents are air dried called wet cake drying and then the materials are pulverized in various size through the micro pulverization machine. The above said wet cake air drying process should be done in a air conditioned room and free from ventilation. The accused company is having the air conditioned room at the Administrative building. The said Mohanraj, a chemists and also the Manager and boil operator Senthilraja are only allowed to work during the wet cake air drying process.
On 08.11.2013 at about 5.30 p.m., when the Manager Mohanraj and the boil operator Senthilaraja were sitting and other labours of the company namely Venkatesan, Rajamanickam, Prabhakaran and Karthick where standing in the wet cake air drying air conditioned room during the wt cake air drying process without opening the ventilators, to lot out the accumulated Hexone vepour, the Hexane Vepour formed a flammable mixture with air and when Karthikeyan @ Karthick switched on the fan, spark came out from the switch board and caused fire accident and due to that the said Mohanraj and Senthilraja died in occurrence place due to effects of burn injury and other above said 4 persons sustained severe burn injury admitted in the hospital subsequently died due to the effects of burn injury i.e., on 10.11.2013, Karthikeyan @ Karthi died at G.H.Salem, on 11.11.2013 Venkatesan died at Ganga Hospital Coimbatore, on 11.11.13, Prabhakaran and Rajamanickam died at Ganga Hospital, Coimbatore.
The marginally noted accused owner of the above said company who is having the response of supervising the proper functioning of the company, failed to supervise the day to day affair of the company and neglected to take precautionary measures to safeguard his labours namely the above said six deceased and due to his negligent conduct on 8.11.2013 at about 5.30 p.m., the above said 6 persons were allowed to be present inside the wet cake drying air condition room, during the wet cake drying process without ventilation and the highly inflamebale hexane vapour released from the process accumulated inside the air conditioned room caused the fire accident when it came in contact with the spark coming out of the switch board when switched on by one of the deceased Karthick @ Karthikeyan and caused the death of above said 6 persons.
4. From a reading of the above, it is apparent that Karthikeyan @ Karthick had switched on the fan without realising that the ventilator has not been opened. It is merely a case of accident and there is seems to be no amount of culpability warranting prosecution of the accused herein. It is also admitted by the prosecution that the accused had paid Rs.5 Lakhs as compensation to the family of each of the deceased. Of course, that cannot be a reason to quash the prosecution, if it is otherwise sustainable.
5. In the considered opinion of this Court, this prosecution is not sustainable because there was no reckless negligence that is attributable to the petitioners herein. The incident, which is no doubt very tragic and which had caused the death of six persons, was a sheer accident for which the petitioner cannot be held criminally liable under Section 304(A) IPC.
In the result, this Criminal Original Petition is allowed and the proceedings in C.C.No.75 of 2015 on the file of the learned Judicial Magistrate No.I, Attur, Salem District is hereby quashed. Consequently, connected miscellaneous petitions are closed.
15.09.2015 vsm To
1.The Judicial Magistrate No.I, Attur, Salem District
2.The Deputy Superintendent of Police, Attur Sub Division, Salem District.
3.The Public Prosecutor, High Court, Madras.
P.N.PRAKASH, J.
vsm Crl.OP No.23189 of 2015 15.09.2015