Eight years after the murder of K. Vijayan alias Vijay Kumar, a close relative of former Chief Minister M.G. Ramachandran, the Madras High Court on Monday acquitted prime accused N. Banu (one of the adopted daughters of MGR to whom he had bequeathed a portion of his property) of all the charges against her.
A Division Bench of Justices S. Nagamuthu and N. Seshasayee passed the direction on the appeals moved by Ms. Banu and six others assailing the life sentence awarded to them by a trial court.
Besides Ms. Banu, the Bench has also acquitted M. Karthik, seventh accused in the case. The life sentences awarded to five others have been upheld.
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On July 13, 2016, the Principal Session Judge convicted N. Banu, G. Karuna, T. Suresh, R. Karthik, R. Dinesh Kumar, J. Solomon, and M. Karthik under Section 120B (Criminal conspiracy) of IPC. Banu, Karuna, and M. Karthik were also found guilty under Section 302 (Murder) of the Indian Penal Code.
According to the prosecution,the crime was an outcome of a property dispute Ms. Banu had with Vijayan.
As per the will left behind by MGR, after the life of his wife Janaki, his properties should be distributed among her legal heirs. In due course, a property dispute arose among the legal heirs.
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The prime evidence to link Ms. Banu with the murder was a cell phone conversation between second accused Karuna (a police constable) and Ms. Banu. But when the cell phone used by Karuna was examined, the details of such conversation could not be traced.
A copy of the conversation recorded in a CD from a computer also could not be retrieved from the CD.
Noting that there is absolutely no evidence to prove that before the occurrence of the incident, the two had a conversation during which Ms. Banu instructed Karuna to kill Vijayan, the Bench relieved Ms. Banu of all charges against her.