Nine sentenced to life imprisonment for murder as Madras HC quashes trial court order
CHENNAI: Setting aside the trial court’s order acquitting all the nine accused persons in a Tiruvannamalai murder case, the Madras High Court has found them guilty and sentenced them to life imprisonment after finding that the prosecution proved the charges beyond doubt.
The matter pertains to the appeal filed by the police against the 2017 order of the district and sessions court acquitting nine persons, who had murdered Ramesh of Tiruvannamalai town due to previous enmity over monetary dispute on April 25, 2011.
Allowing the appeal, a division bench of justices P Velmurugan and M Jothiraman on Wednesday reversed the judgment of the trial court and sentenced A Ravi, K Devadoss, M Ammurose, K Ranjan, A Venkatesan, K Manjunathan, K Karunanidhi, V Suryaprakash and P Raja to life imprisonment.
“Having regard to the facts and circumstances of the case and the grave nature of the offence, this court finds the prosecution proved the respondents committed the offence punishable under sections 147, 148 (rioting), 341 (wrongful restraint), and 302 (murder) r/w section 149 (unlawful assembly) of IPC. Accordingly, for the offence under section 302 IPC r/w 149, the respondents are sentenced to undergo life imprisonment and pay a fine of Rs 1,000 each,” the bench said in the order.
However, it did not impose separate sentences for offences other than for sections 302 and 149 since they were awarded with life sentence to the major offence, and suspended the sentence (life imprisonment) to enable them to file appeal.
The bench held that the trial court failed to properly appreciate the evidence of the prosecution witness-I and the supporting medical evidence but gave undue importance to minor contradictions and the hostility of certain witnesses. Such an approach is perverse and contrary to the evidence available on record.