Tamil Nadu: In 2003 Honour Killing Case, Court Awards Death Sentence To One & Life Sentence To 12

The case related to the poisoning of the inter-caste couple - S Murugasen belonging to Dalit community and D Kannagi belonging to Caste Hindu - and burning their bodies near Virudhachalam.

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Chennai: The Special Court for SC/ST in Cuddalore On Friday convicted 13 people including a former police official in connection with the ‘honour’ killing of inter-caste couple near Virudhachalam in 2003. While the court has awarded the death sentence to the prime accused, 12 others were sentenced to life imprisonment. 

The special court SC/ST convicted 13 people - Kannagi’s father Duraisamy, her brother Maruthupandi, Rangasamy, Kandavelu, Jothi, Venkatesan, Mani, Dhanavel, Anjapuli, Ramadas, Chinnadurai, Tamil Maran and Sellamuthu - and acquitted Ayyasami and Gunasekaran. While the death sentence was awarded to Maruthupandi, the rest of them were sentenced to life imprisonment. 

According to media reports, the case related to the poisoning of the inter-caste couple - S Murugasen belonging to Dalit community and D Kannagi belonging to Caste Hindu - and burning of their bodies at Puthukooraipettai near Virudhachalam in front of a mass crowd. 

Murugesan who was a Chemical engineer by profession, had fallen in love with Kannagi when she was pursuing BCom through correspondence. After getting married in May 2003, Murugesan eloped with Kannagi the next month. While Kannagi stayed at his relative’s house near Tiruvannamalai, he stayed at another relative’s house near Srimushnam. However, Kannagi’s elder brother Maruthupandi learned about their wedding and made tricks to bring Murugesan back to the village. 

According to reports, Maruthupandi and his supporters tortured Murugesan and without being able to bear the torture he revealed the location of Kannagi. Subsequently, the gang brought Kannagi back to the village and forcibly fed poison to the couple before burning their bodies in the village as a large crowd witnessed. 

Following the intervention of the political parties, Virudhachalam police officials arrested eight people including Maruthupandi, Kannagi’s father Duraisamy and Murugesan’s father Samikannu. However, the arrested people came out on bail within a month. 

Later, the case was transferred to CBI in 2004 and the officials had filed a charge sheet against 15 people including the then inspector Tamil Maran, retired DSP Sellamuthu and two from Dalit community - Ayyasami and Gunasekaran. 

(With inputs from ABP Nadu — It is a Tamil platform of ABP News. For more news, commentary and latest happenings from Tamil Nadu, follow https://tamil.abplive.com/)