Madras HC quashes order summoning Parvathamma Rajkumar

 The Madras High Court on Saturday set aside a lower court’s order summoning late Kannada actor Rajkumar’s wife to depose as a witness in connection with the actor’s kidnap by forest brigand Veerappan and directed it to consider the matter afresh.

Allowing a plea by the actor’s wife Parvathamma, Justice P N Prakash set aside the order of III Additional District-cum-Sessions judge of Gobichettipalayam court in Erode district summoning her.

Parvathamma had moved the High Court after the trial court had rejected her plea to dispense with her personal presence as she suffered from Alzheimer’s . The prosecution had also supported her plea.

“A genuine request appears to have been made by the prosecution, contending that Parvathamma was suffering from Alzheimer’s and therefore, no purpose would be served by bringing her from Karnataka for giving evidence as she may not even be able to depose to the facts that had taken place in the year 2000,” the bench said.

It said a realistic approach should be adopted by this court in cases of this nature.
The bench said if there was other evidence for the same fact, it was not necessary for the prosecution to duplicate evidence and increase the number of witnesses in the light of Section 134 of Evidence Act.

“The operative portion of the trial court order is silent on the question as to whether the prosecution has examined the witnesses who were present with Parvathamma when Rajkumar was abducted and  whether the evidence of those persons would be insufficient to arrive at a just decision in the case.”

Though the prosecution sought to dispense with her personal attendance saying she was not medically fit to give evidence as she was suffering from Alzheimer’s, the trial court had rejected the request.

The High Court said it was remitting the matter to the trial court for fresh consideration on whether Parvathamma’s evidence would be essential in the light of the assertion that she suffers from Alzheimer’s.