C. Balachandran (44), of Manali in Srimadurai near Gudalur, an undertrial in the murder of his brother Venugopal, the latter’s wife and their son (in May 2012) was found dead hanging in his house on Monday morning — the day when the trial of the case was set to commence at the Mahila Court in Udhagamandalam.
Public Prosecutor K. Anandhakrishnan told The Hindu that the man murdered the trio to avenge the murder of his wife, daughter and son — by Venugopal’s elder son Deepu in January 2012. It is learnt that Balachandran and his brothers Haridas, Karunakaran and Venugopal had a share of the two acre tea estate they inherited from their father.
There was a dispute over the property between Venugopal and Balachandran who lived nearby and Deepu set Balachandran’s tea plantation ablaze. It is learnt that Deepu (19-year-old in 2012) had also tried to misbehave with Balachandran’s wife Radhamani alias Ammalu (37). Ammalu informed the elders in the family and this along with the property dispute left the teenager fuming with anger and humiliation. On January 10, 2012, Deepu hacked her to death before hacking her daughter B. Ramya (15) and son B. Vishnu (13) to death at their house.
Deepu was arrested and lodged in the borstal at Pollachi. Balachandran wanted to avenge the murder of the family and hacked Venugopal (55) to death on May 11, 2012, before murdering his wife Sumathi (50) and their younger son V. Pradeesh (15) using a knife and iron rod, in their house.
In December 2014, the Udhagamandalam Mahila Court convicted Deepu and awarded him death sentence. On pronouncing the judgment, the same court was all set to start trial in the case against Balachandran on Monday and continue hearing witnesses till Wednesday.
It is learnt that Gudalur Police who investigated the triple murder met witnesses in the case against Balachandran and were preparing for producing them before the Mahila Court on Monday. Balachandran reportedly tried to convince the witnesses (mostly relatives) asking them not to testify against him but they refused to do so. According to the police, inquiry revealed that the man feared that he too would get death sentence and committed suicide. His body was taken to Gudalur Government Hospital for post-mortem.
The PP said that Mahila Court judge M. Sarvamangala on learning about the death of the accused posted the case for trial, on June 22. “The case will be closed on producing Balachandran’s death certificate,” Mr. Anandhakrishnan added.
