The Supreme Court on Monday rejected the appeals filed by the convicts in the infamous 2003 Tamil Nadu honour killings of an intercaste couple Kannagi and Murugesan, agreeing with the Madras High Court's 2022 decision that upheld life sentences for nine convicts and acquitted two others.
The apex court, in its judgement, also upheld the HC's commutation of the death penalty of Kannagi's brother Marudupandian to life imprisonment.
"There is no merit in the appeals filed by eight of the convicts challenging their life sentences," said a two-judge bench of the apex court, led by Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and including Justice PK Mishra, in its order on Monday.
Rejecting the contentions of the convicts, the top court refused to interfere with the HC judgement.
"We see no reason to interfere with the impugned judgment of the Madras High Court, and these appeals are, accordingly, dismissed. All those appellants, who are on bail, are directed to surrender within two weeks from today to undergo their remaining sentence," the bench said.
Challenging the HC's verdict, the convicts moved the apex court seeking acquittal in the case.
The apex court, delving into the case, also looked into the aspect of victims' welfare and compensation in the case, directing the state to pay Rs 5 lakh to the families of the victims.
"We are also of the opinion that victim compensation here is warranted. We thus award compensation of Rs 5,00,000 to Prosecution Witness PW-1 (Samikannu-father of Murugesan) and PW-49 (Chinnapillai - step-mother of Murugesan) jointly, or to the nearest of their kin. This compensation is liable to be paid by the state of Tamil Nadu to these persons. We further clarify that this compensation would be in addition to the amount awarded or directed to be paid as compensation by the Sessions Court and High Court," the court said.
In strong observations, the top court in its verdict said, "A crime is an act against the state. But a wicked and odious crime, as the one we have just dealt with, is the ugly reality of our deeply entrenched caste structure. Honour-killing, as these are called, must get a strong measure of punishment."
The court noted in its verdict that this was a case of a dastardly murder of a young couple, Murugesan and Kannagi, who were only in their early twenties when they were killed. Both of them were administered poison in full view of a large number of villagers. The masterminds and the main perpetrators of this macabre act were none other than the father and the brother of Kannagi.
The court went on to say that the reason behind the murder of the couple was that Kannagi, who belonged to the Vanniyar community, had dared to marry Murugesan who was a Dalit from the same village. So, at the root of this crime is the deeply entrenched hierarchical caste system in India, and ironically, this most dishonorable act goes by the name of honour-killing, it said.
Kannagi and Murugesan secretly got married on May 5, 2003. But their marriage came to a tragic end when Kannagi's family came to know of it, catching hold of the couple on July 7, 2003 as they were about to leave town. Kannagi's family members forced the couple to drink poison, which resulted in their deaths. Their bodies were later burned, according to the prosecution.
When the case made headlines in 2003, initially it was handed over to the state police. But it had to be transferred to the CBI, following a botched-up probe by the state police.
After 18 years, the trial court in 2021, awarded the death sentence to Marudupandian, Kannagi's brother, and sentenced 12 others, including her father, to life imprisonment. In 2022, the Madras HC commuted the death sentence of Marudupandian to life sentence and confirmed the life sentence of nine others, including her father. Two persons were acquitted in the case.