Man absconding for 23 years denied parity with other accused, told to face trial

Bengaluru: An attempt-to-murder accused, absconding for 23 years, has been asked by the high court to face trial despite the fact that other two accused in the case have been acquitted.
Declining parity, Justice HB Prabhakara Sastry has asked Nazeer Ahamed, a businessman from Bhatkal town in Uttara Kannada district and arraigned as accused no. 3 in the case, to surrender before the magistrate in four weeks.
“Merely because the trial, which was confined to accused no.2, ended in acquittal, it cannot be presumed the one against accused no. 3 will also end like that,” the judge noted.
Justice Sastry said a perusal of the complainant’s deposition shows he had named Ahamed in his evidence, though he turned hostile in the case of the second accused.
While accused no. 2 was acquitted by the sessions court on May 30, 2003, the charge against the first accused was quashed by the high court on November 18, 2011, based on acquittal of the second accused.
Ahamed had sought for quashing of proceedings as the second accused had already been acquitted by the trial court. The prosecution, however, contended that Ahamed had been declared an absconder and non-bailable warrants were repeatedly issued against him.
What happened in 1995
On October 26, 1995, complainant Mohammed Salim was returning home when three persons assaulted him using an iron rod and a sword near National Girls High school, Murudeshwar.
Salim sustained severe injuries and a case under sections 307, 324 and 506 of IPC was registered. While the case against the second accused was in the sessions court, the case against the other two was split as Ahamed went missing.