MADURAI: The Madurai District Court on Tuesday sentenced G. Sri Kalpana to life imprisonment for the 2014 murder of D.P. Kamaraj, a lawyer and son-in-law of former Union Minister Dalit Ezhilmalai.
Kalpana, who was the president of Puratchi Bharatham Katchi in Kolathur at the time, had hired Kamaraj to settle a dispute after purchasing 1,400 sq. ft. of land. However, the prosecution alleged that Kamaraj, after gaining possession of the land documents, intimidated and mistreated her while demanding large sums of money.
On August 28, 2014, Kamaraj visited Kalpana’s apartment around 12:30 p.m., instructing her to prepare the money, while his junior waited in the car outside. An hour later, Kalpana called for help, claiming Kamaraj had fallen unconscious. Despite being rushed to the hospital, he was declared dead on arrival. Initially, the police registered a case of suspicious death, which was later changed to murder following an inquest and autopsy.
The police subsequently arrested Kalpana, her housemaid’s husband, R. Anandan, and his associate, S. Karthick. After a Supreme Court directive, the case was transferred from a lower court in Thiruvattar to the Madurai District Court in 2015.
Principal Sessions Judge S. Sivakadatcham noted that Kalpana failed to explain how Kamaraj became unconscious in her home or how he sustained the 21 injuries recorded in the postmortem report. The judge found her guilty of murder, sentencing her to life imprisonment and imposing a fine of ₹5,000. However, Anandan and Karthick were acquitted due to lack of evidence of their presence at the crime scene.