Ex-Naxal gets five life terms 36 years after throwing bomb
The cops - Masilamani and Unnikrishnan who survived the incident turned key eyewitnesses in this case.
Chennai: A 74-year-old former naxalite Anbu aka Sivalingam was awarded 5 life sentences by a Vellore court on Monday, 36 years after he hurled a country bomb during his escape bid causing the death of three cops and three other naxals, besides injuring two other policemen and another naxal.
The I Additional District & Sessions Court judge S Natarajan held the lone surviving suspect Anbu as guilty in the case, in which the trial began in 2010.
On August 8, 1980 a police team comprising of the then Jolarpet Circle Inspector V Palanisamy, policemen Murugesan, Yesusass, Masilamani, and Unnikrishnan, arrested Anbu along with Chinnathambi, Perumal, Rajappa, and Selvam, were arrested by from Yelagiri hills. They transported the naxal quintet in an Ambassador car. Anbu who had managed to sneak in a country bomb in his innerwear despite being frisked demanded that the vehicle be stopped for him to relieve himself, which was turned down.
“Having the advantage of knowing the topography, Anbu made the bomb explode when the car had to slow down negotiating a curve in Tirupattur, at around 6.30 am.
Anbu who was sitting on the car floor hurled the bomb on the overhead roof away from him setting off the explosion, causing panic. The moment he hurled the bomb, Anbu leaped out of the car along with Chinnathambi”, said CBCID Inspector S Vijay.
The cops - Masilamani and Unnikrishnan who survived the incident turned key eyewitnesses in this case. Anbu, who went off the police radar for three decades, was traced and arrested by Q Branch on June 20, 2009.
Subsequently, CBCID formally arrested him in the explosion case. Anbu, who was acquitted in several other cases he was facing across the state, was convicted in the case pursued by CBCID. The case was chargesheeted in 1982 while Chinnathambi
The judge sentenced Anbu to 10 years rigorous imprisonment under sections 3 and 4 of Explosives Substances Act 1908 and 5 life sentences on five counts including murder, to be served concurrently.