NAGERCOIL: A fast track Mahila court here on Thursday awarded double life term to an ex-serviceman for raping and murdering his daughter in 2010. The court also imposed a fine of `1.25 lakh on the convict identified as A Roosevelt (48) of Ambalakadai near Arumanai here.
According to the prosecution, Roosevelt married one Ida Selvakumari after the demise of his first wife. Roosevelt, Selvakumari and Roosevelt’s daughter Sherly Jasmine (17) (born to the first wife) were living at Ambalakadai. On May 29, 2010, Sherly, who was alone in the house, was murdered and her body was found in the bathroom. Following this, Roosevelt lodged a complaint with the Arumanai police stating that his daughter was found murdered and 6.5 sovereigns of gold jewellery and Rs 5,000 were missing from the house. Arumanai police registered an FIR and sent the body for postmortem. The autopsy report revealed that the deceased girl was four months pregnant.
Subsequently, when police interrogated Roosevelt, he confessed that he had sexual intercourse with his daughter as a result of which she became pregnant. His repeated attempts to abort the foetus failed following which he hatched the murder plan. On May 29, 2010, after dropping Selvakumari at her native place in Thottavaram, Roosevelt returned home and made his daughter consume 15 sleeping tablets. Once she fainted, her dumped her in a tank in the bathroom and left her to suffocate and die.