CHENNAI: The III Additional District and Sessions Court in Poonamallee has sentenced four men to life imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 4,000 each in connection with a 2012 kidnap and murder of a marine engineer from Maduravoyal.
In its verdict on March 25, the court held the accused – Kaarmegam (28), Boopalan (22), Rajkumar (23) and Sundaresan alias Sundar (22) – guilty of murder, and said if the convicts fail to pay the fine, they have to undergo an additional one year in prison.
Another accused, Gokul alias Gokulakrishnan (38), was acquitted after the prosecution failed to establish charges against him.
The marine engineer, Dillibabu alias Venkatesh (29), was kidnapped and killed on February 6, 2012, following a monetary dispute.
He was kidnapped and taken to a remote area near Tiruvannamalai and was strangled to death. The convicts later set the body on fire in an attempt to destroy evidence. They also and took the gold ornaments worn by him, the police added.