Eight years after 24-year-old Swathi, a techie with Infosys who was hacked to death on the platform of Nungambakkam railway station in Chennai, the Madras High Court rejected a plea from Swathi's parents seeking Rs 3 crore as compensation from the Southern Railways.Justice R Subramanian rejected the plea filed in November 2016 by Swathi’s mother A Ranganayaki and father K Santhanagopalakrishnan.
The writ petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution before the Court is not the right forum to order compensation, the judge said and advised the couple to approach the appropriate one having civil jurisdiction. On June 24, 2016, while Swathi was waiting to board a train to travel to her workplace in Mahendra City, she was hacked to death in the Nungambakkam railway station. The police arrested Ramkumar, who later died by suicide inside the Puzhal Central Prison. In the appeal, Swathi's parents alleged that Swathi’s death was due to the "sheer negligence" on the part of the railway authorities.
Earlier, Swathi’s parents’ counsel Kuberan told TNM that it’s important for aggrieved persons to file for compensation to ensure that public servants do their jobs properly. “Anybody affected or aggrieved can very well maintain a claim like this,” he said. Also the writ was filed by Swathi’s parents in 2016; however, the Madras High court Registry, which was supposed to number the case for the court to hear, refused to number Swathi’s parents’ writ on the grounds that there was ‘alternate remedy’ available.
(With PTI inputs)