Eight years on, MGR's foster daughter gets life for murder

All the seven accused in the Vijayan aka Vijayakumar (53), the husband of Sudha, a foster daughter of former Chief Minister and AIADMK founder MG Ramachandran, murder case were convicted by a sessions court here on Wednesday.

CHENNAI: Eight years after the sensational murder of Vijayan, the foster son-in-law of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MGR, a sessions court on Thursday convicted and sentenced to life one of MGR’s foster daughters N Banu Shridhar and six other men, including a police constable.

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The power battle between MGR’s seven foster children over control of the property left behind by the former CM turned gory on June 8, 2008, when a five-member gang of hired killers murdered Vijayan, who was travelling in his car at Kotturpuram.

After several twists and turns, the trial in the case came to a conclusion on Wednesday when the principal sessions judge G Jaichandran pronounced the verdict on all seven accused, including N Banu Sridhar, one of MGR’s foster daughters and the prime accused in the case. The court said the prosecution had established that Banu hired the five paid killers through Karuna, a police constable, who eliminated Vijayan by assaulting him with iron pipes.

For Vijayan’s family, Wednesday’s verdict was justice, albeit delayed. “My family would say what is the point of fighting when my husband is already dead, but I needed to fight for him,” Sudha, Vijayan’s wife and another foster daughter of MGR, told Express after the verdict as she fondly showed a picture of her late husband.