MADURAI: Sending a stern warning that the law would offer no sanctuary to persons committing sexual crimes against children, the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Tuesday confirmed the capital punishment imposed on a 41-year-old man three months ago for the aggravated penetrative sexual assault of three minor girl children in Tirunelveli in 2023.
“The accused, who has destroyed the soul and dignity of three children, is not fit to live in the society and for the heinous crime committed by him, he has to necessarily lose his life,” a bench of justices N Anand Venkatesh and KK Ramakrishnan held.
By weaponising fear, wielding threats of death, and forcing these children to witness the violation of one another, he did not just break the law, but he extinguished the light of their childhood and left in its place a lifetime of haunting shadows, they added.
“To spare the life of a perpetrator who showed such cold-blooded, protracted cruelty would be an act of misplaced mercy, rendering the law a silent spectator to the destruction of the innocent.
It would send a devastating message to the community: that the soul of a child is cheap, and that a monster may trade the lifelong peace of his victims for the comfort of a prison cell,” they further observed.
The judges made the observations while dismissing an appeal filed by T Anandhasekar, challenging the conviction and death sentence imposed on him by a Special Court in Tirunelveli on March 9, 2026, for the sexual assault of three minor children aged six, seven and eight, respectively.
According to the prosecution, Anandhasekar, who was a married daily wage worker with children of his own, had lured the victims, who used to play in the neighborhood, and repeatedly committed aggravated penetrative sexual assault on them for over a year.
The grandmother of one of the victims came to know about this and alerted the parents, who lodged a complaint, which led to his conviction. Hearing Anandhasekar’s appeal and the reference made by the trial court for confirmation of the death penalty, the judges were satisfied that the prosecution had proved the case beyond any reasonable doubt. They further observed that cases of this nature deserve more stringent punishment than cases involving murder, dacoity, etc. Holding that the convict forfeited his right to walk among humanity, the judges upheld the conviction and punishment and directed the Registry to furnish a copy of the judgement to Anandhasekar, who is lodged in Palayamkottai Central Prison, free of cost, with further directions to the jail authorities to ensure he gets legal assistance if he preferred to file an appeal against the order. They also directed the Registry to take necessary steps to redact the names of the victim girls from all the trial court records. It could be recalled that previously in 2022, a division bench headed by Justice S Vaidyanathan had similarly confirmed the death penalty imposed on a 26-year-old man Samivel alias Raja for the brutal sexual assault and murder of a seven-year-old girl in Pudukkottai in 2020. However, his execution was stayed by the Supreme Court the same year, and the matter is still pending.