Chennai: A special court in Sivaganga district of Tamil Nadu on Friday sentenced all 27 accused in connection with the murders of three Dalits at Kachanatham in 2018 to life imprisonment.


On May 28, 2018, a group of Agamudiyar (a dominant caste community) members gathered a mob and attacked the members of Devendra Kulla Vellalar community (a Dalit community) in Kachanatham for an issue over getting "first respect" during a temple festival. The dominant caste members attacked the eight Dalit men at their homes with sickles and grievously injured all of them. Of the eight members, three of the members--K Arumugam, A Shanmuganathan and V Chandrasekhar--died on the spot. 


Following this, the police booked a case against 33 men including four juveniles. However, during the trial one of them died and one other person is still absconding. 


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On August 1, a Special Court judge G Muthukumaran convicted 27 of the accused under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, said a report on The Hindu.


On August 3, the Special Court judge heard the family members of the victims and the convicts in the case to decide on the quantum of sentence and postponed the case to August 5.


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In 2019, Madurai bench of Madras HC said that the triple murders were a 'grim reminder of the ugly face of caste inequality' in Sivaganga'.