Ex-cons win cases with alibis

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With a success rate of over 60 per cent in courts, Mr Poochi and Mr Balusamy would have made any law firm proud.

The two, who have served jail terms of 16 and 11 years respectively, had argued their own cases in as many as 80 robbery cases in different courts during their incarceration and won 50 of them.

After their release from the Madurai Central Prison, the two partners split up to lead their own lives, Mr Poochi (48) got into farming and Mr Balusamy (53) runs a brick kiln.

Prison sources said the two had kept policemen in various districts of Tamil Nadu on their toes through serial robberies, from Madurai, Vedasanthur, Karur and Srivilliputhur to Chennai.

Both decided to work on their release with the help of educated prisoners inside. “We met many educated persons in prison.

Though both of us were illiterate, we wanted to learn legal terms as we couldn’t afford to pay for advocates. We got the knack of arguing cases in layman’s terms.

We were surprised that we were able to get acquittals in close to 50 cases,” said Mr Poochi (48), now a farmer in Madurai, speaking to this newspaper.

Mr Balusamy said he presented his cases in 37 courts in the state. “After arguments by the opposite party, I would explain to the judge clearly that I was not at the spot where the robbery was said to have taken place. I established my arguments with facts and got acquittals,” he said.

In the Coimbatore prison alone nearly 30 prisoners are fighting their own cases and they even cross-examine advocates appearing for the opposite party.

Mr Ramalingam, a Class III dropout, doing time in Coimbatore prison, has five cases against him in the Tirupur court. He informed his family that arguing the cases on his own was easier than paying for an advocate.