On Sunday evening, a bevy of Palakkad’s socialites gathered at Top-in-Town here to bid farewell to a prosecutor. From the speeches some of them made, including chief guest former High Court judge Chettur Sankaran Nair, it was clear that the retiring Deputy Director of Prosecution P. Premnath deserved much more as a social worker.
The adulatory words usually heard in farewell functions apart, Mr. Premnath’s contributions to victimology as a branch of criminology in the country became a topic of discussion at the meeting. Although former police chief V.N. Rajan, who died in Chennai two years ago, is widely considered as the father of victimology in India, it was Mr. Premnath who displayed the courage to put it to practice, said Mr. Sankaran Nair.
Underscoring the necessity of bringing about some drastic changes in the current juridical system, Mr. Sankaran Nair said that the current system was not victim oriented. “Rather, it is accused centric. This should change,” he said.
