Tamil Nadu - Chennai   

Court confirms life sentences

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Thursday confirmed the judgment of a sessions court awarding three life sentences to one accused and life imprisonment to another in the case relating to the murder of six persons, involving ‘Auto’ Sankar.

The First Additional Sessions Court, Chennai, had in 2005 sentenced Mohan, who was cited as accused number 1, to a total of three life imprisonments and said they would run consecutively. Selvam alias Selva alias Selvaraj was sentenced to life imprisonment. Challenging this, the two preferred appeals.

In its common judgment, a Division Bench comprising Justices M. Chockalingam and M. Venugopal dismissed the appeals. The lower court had marshalled the evidence properly and considered the same and found that Selvam was guilty of the charges under sections 302 read with 34 (three counts) and 147 IPC. The sessions court considering the circumstances attendant had found the appellant guilty as per the charges and awarded life imprisonment. In a case like this, there was no option for the court than to award life imprisonment when he was found guilty for a charge of murder. The lower court had exercised leniency and ordered that the life sentence should run concurrently. The Bench said it was unable to notice any merit in the appeal.

The Bench said Mohan had played a prominent role along with the prime accused Shankar in the commission of the murders. It also spoke of the cruelty and would indicate that he had indulged in gruesome, heinous and atrocious crimes. It rejected the senior counsel’s contention that the trial court had not assigned special reasons for awarding three life sentences consecutively. The judges said the trial court had narrated all the overt acts committed by the accused.

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