COIMBATORE : A 20-year-old man was handed the death penalty by a Mahila Court in Udhagamandalam on Tuesday for the murder of a woman and her two young children.
V Deepu of Sreemadhura was found guilty of hacking to death his aunt, M Radhamani (37) and her two children, M Vishnu (13) and Ramya (15) on January 1, 2012. Deepu’s father, Venugopal, had a land dispute with his relative Manali Balachandar, sources said. They had been feuding over a half an acre of land.
Before the incident, Deepu and Balachandar had an altercation. Deepu had then picked up a sickle and had come to the house of Balachandar.
On finding that he was not there, Deepu hacked Balachander’s wife and the two children to death with the sickle.
He then consumed poison and escaped into a thicket. However, the police, with the help of local people, managed to locate him and took him to the Gudalur Taluk Hospital, where he recovered.
The sessions court had been hearing the case before it was transferred to the Udhagamandalam Mahila Court.
On Tuesday, District Judge M Sarvamangala handed Deepu the death sentence for the triple murder. This was the first death sentence awarded to an offender by the district court in Udhagamandalam after 2000, sources said.