The First Additional District Judge here on Monday convicted three persons and sentenced them to life imprisonment for murdering a teenager by throwing him from Malampuzha Dam in Palakkad, Kerala, in July 2010.
The convicts were identified as Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution (Tangedco) official K. Nagarathinam (49), of Othakalmandapam, and Tangedco contract labourers P. Suresh alias Suresh Kumar (32), of Othakalmandapam, and P. Srinivasan (39), from Podanur.
Additional Public Prosecutor V.V. Nagarajan said that the first accused Nagarathinam (aged 43 in 2010) was a line engineer in the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board. He was married and father of two, but was separated from his wife.
The victim R. Venkatesh (17), also a Tangedco contract labourer and sole breadwinner for the family, worked as contract labourer under Nagarathinam. He lived with his mother Chitra and sister Sivaranjani (19) at Malumichampatty. “Nagarathinam was close to Venkatesh’s family and expressed interest in marrying Sivaranjani. On June 28, 2010, he and his relatives went to Venkatesh’s house seeking alliance,” Mr. Nagarajan said and added that the girl’s family was against it.
“On July 1, Nagarathinam called Venkatesh for work and the teenager did not return home. When Chitra told Nagarathinam, the latter even helped in lodging a complaint with the Chettipalayam Police,” the APP added. During inquiry, the police suspected Nagarathinam’s role behind the boy going missing.
He went under hiding and was arrested on July 9. The official confessed murdering Venkatesh with help of the two others.
The trio took Venkatesh to the dam and from the dam they threw him into the water. The boy who did not know swimming drowned.
The following day, the body got entangled in fishing net.
It was taken to the Thrissur Government Hospital and preserved as it was an unidentified body.
Meanwhile after the confession of the trio, Chettipalayam Police headed to Kerala and continued the inquiry. The case in Malampuzha was closed as the boy was abducted from here.
Chettipalayam Police booked the three under sections 364 (abduction for murder) and 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code arrested and were later released on bail. But the trial got delayed by four years as Nagarathinam appealed before the court that the trail be conducted in Kerala.
The petition was dismissed by a court here and later by Madras High Court, after which the trial began.
On Monday, judge M. Christopher awarded life imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs. 10,000 on the trio for murder. They attracted another five years imprisonment and Rs. 5,000 as fine for abduction. The terms are to be served concurrently.
