CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Friday acquitted all the convicts, including seven on death row, in the sensational murder of neurosurgeon Dr SD Subbaiah in Chennai in an alleged property dispute in 2013.
Allowing the appeals filed by the nine convicts, the division bench of Justices MS Ramesh and Sunder Mohan on Friday set aside the judgment passed by the Additional Sessions Court- I in Chennai in 2021.
The Additional Sessions Court had convicted and sentenced Ponnusamy, a schoolteacher, his sons Boris, Basil and William, and Dr James Sathish Kumar, Murugan and Selva Prakash to double death sentence for murder and criminal conspiracy. Ponnusamy’s wife Mary Pushpam and another suspect Yesurajan were given double life sentence.
“All the appeals are allowed. The conviction and sentence pronounced by the First Additional Sessions Judge are set aside. The appellants are acquitted of all the charges,” the bench ruled.
It directed the authorities concerned to release all the convicts forthwith unless they are wanted in any other cases. All the nine convicts had preferred appeals before the Madras High Court challenging the trial court verdict. Their counsels argued that the prosecution had failed to prove the charges beyond reasonable doubts and the trial court had not taken into account such facts. However, the prosecution contended that the charges were proven without doubt and the trial court had considered all the factors before pronouncing the verdict.