Chennai: A special Court in Cuddalore district, Tamil Nadu ordered death sentence to a man, and life imprisonment for 12 others, in a dishonour killing case, following an inter-caste marriage. The case happened in 2003, where a young couple was murdered by the woman’s family, a month after their marriage.
On Friday, the special court considering the case awarded the death sentence to Marudhupandian, the deceased woman’s brother. Twelve others, including her father Duraiswami, the then Inspector Chellamuthu (now retired) and Sub Inspector Tamilmaran (now Inspector) have been awarded life-term sentences.
The incident happened after the love marriage between 22-year-old D Kannagi and 25-year-old S Murugesan. Kannagi’s parents who belonged to a dominant community did not accept their daughter’s marriage with Murugan, who belonged to a scheduled caste, after which the couple lived separately from their parents. But after a month, Kannagi’s family, pretended to accept the relationship, and visited the couple. They murdered the couple at their home by administering poison through their nostrils and ears, before burning the bodies. Reports have also stated that the couple got tortured in front of the villagers in Kuppanatham, where Kannagi’s father was the village chief at the time.
Under the influence of the culprit’s family, the police covered up the incident and did not register the case filed by S Murugesan’s family. After public protests in 2004, the investigation went to the CBI. Cases were filed against 15 people and 81 were listed as witnesses. As many as 36 of them turned hostile by the end of it. The legal battle, which began for S Murugesan’s family, was served justice nearly after two decades of the incident.
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