Three get life term in dowry death case

The Fast Track Mahila Court here has awarded life sentence to a man and his parents in a dowry death case.

Passing orders on the three-year-old case on Thursday, Mahila Court District Judge M. Prakasan convicted M. Silambarasan and his parents Malairaj and Poomayil, and sentenced them to life imprisonment for strangulating to death the teen-aged girl after she failed to bring dowry. The judge awarded the sentence and imposed a fine of Rs. 15,000 each on the three accused. The accused should undergo additional 14 months’ imprisonment each if they failed to pay the fine, the judge said.

The prosecution case was that M. Muthupriya of Vadapathimangalam in Thanjavur district was studying class IX in a residential school at Enathi in Ramanathapuram district when she fell in love with Silambarasan. She eloped with him in April 2012.

Acting on a complaint lodged by the girl’s mother, police traced and sent her back with her parents, but she again eloped with Silambarasan and they got married in a temple. Silambarasan’s parents accepted the marriage but started harassing her, demanding that she bring 10 sovereigns of gold jewellery and Rs. 10,000 cash as dowry, the prosecution said.

Against this backdrop, Silambarasan and his parents strangulated Muthupriya to death on the night of October 30, 2012, the prosecution said. They tried to make out the death as a case of suicide by hanging, but Mudukulathur police cracked the case and arrested the three, it said.

The three accused were present in the court when the judge pronounced the sentence. They were lodged in Madurai Central Prison, the police said.