Madurai Bench confirms convictions, life term for 16 persons
Staff Reporter
MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Tuesday confirmed convictions and life term imposed on 16 persons involved in the 1990 caste clashes in Ramanathapuram district, in which four persons, including a woman and a 12-year-old girl, were hacked to death.
They were convicted and sentenced separately in two sequential murder cases. The Ramanathapuram Principal Sessions Court had initially acquitted all of them. The victims’ relatives filed a revision petition in the High Court, which remanded the matter to the trial court. Thereafter, the Sessions Court had convicted them on November 4, 2003.
A Division Bench, comprising Justices D. Murugesan and T. Sudanthiram, said the life sentences shall run concurrently as more than 17 years had elapsed since the crime took place.
Writing the judgment for the Bench, Mr. Justice Sudanthiram said: “Due to communal rivalry, ghastly and gruesome multiple murders have taken place … An innocent young girl had been done to death for no fault of hers. It is a very unfortunate occurrence. The appellants deserve to be punished. Hence, we find no reason to interfere with the findings of the trial court.”
According to the prosecution, there was rivalry between two caste groups of Karisalkulam and Keezhamarathupatti over the post of Neeravi Agricultural Society president.
A resident of Karisalkulam was done to death. In retaliation, 16 persons, armed with deadly weapons, entered Keezhamarathupatti on July 14, 1990, and hurled country-made bombs on farm land owned by Chinnamuthu.
The group got hold of his daughter Ramalakshmi, his sister-in-law Lakshmi, and a labourer, Kannayiram, and killed them. They then hurled another bomb at a nearby tea stall, killing Raju, a customer.
The Division Bench said non-examination of a police constable, who belatedly took the first information report to the Magistrate, would not, in any way, affect the evidence adduced by the eyewitnesses.
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