ORDER

This Criminal Original Petition had been filed to quash the proceedings in C.C.No.12359 of 2018 on the file of the learned IX Metropolitan Magistrate, Saidapet, Chennai.

2.The learned Counsel for the Petitioner Mr.R.Thirumoorthy submitted his arguments. As per his submission, the case of the prosecution is that one Sooraj, the Petitioner herein, is undergoing Ph.D., Course at IIT Madras. On 30.05.2017 at about 23 hours when the second Respondent/De- facto Complainant was having his dinner at Himalayas Mess, he asked the Petitioner, who was sitting nearby him, that he used to eat Jain food in mess but demanding beef in public place and he does not think that it is over reaction of people like him and why he was trying to bring other students. For which, the Petitioner replied to the second Respondent/De-facto Complainant that “Why don’t you come and eat, it tasted really good and you could have come. We had invited everyone.” Then clashes really had begun. The second Respondent/De-facto Complainant does not know the name of any of them but can identify them by face. The second Respondent’s/De-facto Complainant’s hand suffered fracture. The statement of the second Respondent/De-facto Complainant was recorded by his friend – Ashwani Gupta, in the presence of Emergency Doctor Dr.Noel. Even though the second Respondent/De-facto Complainant did not write this letter, he is aware of every single statement of letter as he has personally dictated it with his conscious mind.

3.It is the submission of the Petitioner that the Petitioner was pursuing his Ph.D., in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and now he had completed Ph.D. after submitting the thesis. The Petitioner had attended a couple of reputed International Conferences and had co-authored another international conference paper. The Petitioner is a Senior Research Fellow in the final term of his Doctoral Research. He had published in the prestigious academic journal in his area, Journal of Fluid Mechanics. The Petitioner had participated and presented research findings in European Turbulence conference held in University of Delft, Netherlands in the year 2015 and with financial assistance from IIT Madras. Travel expenses funded by IIT. The Petitioner participated in Turbulent Mixing and Beyond conducted by International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Italy during 2017 which was also sponsored by IIT. The Petitioner was not the organizer of the beef eating event which the second Respondent/De-facto Complainant had referred in the complaint and the Petitioner was just a passive participant. The Petitioner did not make any derogatory remarks about vegetarians and did not utter any threatening comments. There was no provocation in any manner verbally or physically. The second Respondent/De-facto Complainant only abused and assaulted the Petitioner and thereby suffered grievous injury. The Petitioner submitted that there were witnesses to the incident. The incident was over by around 2.10 p.m. One Mr.Anoop had called the institute ambulance and the ambulance took the Petitioner to the Institute Hospital at around 2.20 p.m,. The CCTV footage from the institute hospital will confirm this. An another student Mr.Bharatendu from Chemistry Department was present in the mess during that time also accompanied the Petitioner. The Petitioner only suffered injuries. In fact, the Petitioner was defenseless. The Petitioner also preferred a complaint against the said Manish Kumar Singh which was registered in Cr.No.826 of 2017 for the offences under Sections 147, 341, 325 and 506(ii) of I.P.C. After the incident, the Petitioner was taken to hospital at IIT from where he was referred to Sankara Netralaya at Nungambakkam. While he was in-patient in Sankara Netralaya Hospital, the first Respondent Police came and recorded the statement of the Petitioner. After recording the statement from the Petitioner, the complaint obtained from Manish Kumar Singh was registered as Crime No.828