The Madras High Court on Wednesday confirmed the death sentence imposed by a lower court in March last year on a coconut plucker for raping and murdering a 20-year-old college student near Suruli falls in Theni district in May 2011.
A Division Bench of Justices R. Subbiah and B. Pugalendhi held that it was a fit case for imposing capital punishment since the crime had taken place in a gruesome manner with the convict T. Kattaivellai alias Dhivakar, now 28, having murdered the woman’s lover too when the latter attempted to protect her.
The Theni Principal District and Sessions Court had sentenced the convict to death for murdering the college student and also imposed life imprisonment for having murdered her lover. He was awarded seven years of life imprisonment for the charge of rape. After pronouncing the verdict, the trial judge referred the case to the High Court for confirmation as mandated under the Code of Criminal Procedure.
The Division Bench led by Justice Subbiah took up the reference and heard the case at length at the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court before reserving its orders early this year. Pronouncing the verdict at the principal seat of the High Court in Chennai on Wednesday, the Bench held that it did not find any reason to interfere with the punishment imposed by the trial court.
