Chennai: A Sessions court on Wednesday convicted and sentenced all 7 accused to life imprisonment in the sensational case relating to the murder in the city in 2008 of Vijayan, husband of Sudha, foster daughter of former chief minister and popular film star MGR.
Holding that the prosecution has proved the case beyond reasonable doubt, the Principal Sessions judge G. Jayachandran convicted and sentenced N. Banu, sister-in-law of deceased Vijayan, G. Karuna, a constable, T. Suresh, R. Karthik, R. Dinesh Kumar, J.Soloman and M. Karthik to life imprisonment.
The judge said the conspiracy was mostly hatched in secrecy and the role of each conspirator can be confirmed only from circumstantial evidence. The proximity of Banu (A1) and Karuna (A2) was spoken by the witnesses.
The passing of money by Karuna to prosecution witness 79 (Venkatesan, who turned approver in the case), for Banu was spoken by PW 79 and there was no reason to doubt his evidence. PW79 being an accomplice, the Indian Evidence Act sounds a word of caution to the judge, who appreciates the evidence to seek for corroboration.
“In this case, from the evidence one could see that Karuna has organised and hired the other accused to kill Vijayan. He has no personal grudge or ill-feeling towards Vijayan. But his friend Banu had enough grudge. He has said to prosecution witness 79 that he wants to kill Vijayan for his friend Banu since Vijayan has been making Banu’s life miserable. These are the words spoken by one conspirator to another while the conspiracy is in existence. Hence Section 161 of the Evidence Act squarely applies and with other corroborative piece of evidence such as Karuna’s presence along with other absconding accused Bhuvaneswari, during the meeting held on May 10, 2008 conducted by the advocate commissioner Vivekanandan, which was later corroborated by a prosecution witness. The frequent calls between Banu and Karuna can lead to the irresistible conclusion that Banu was the person who wanted Vijayan to be killed and she conspired to do so along with Karuna.
Karuna has engaged the other accused to keep up surveillance on Vijayan and kill him at the earliest possible chance. Hence the charge of conspiracy against A 1 to 7 to kill VIjayan is proved beyond doubt”, the judge added.
The judge said for the said purpose accused 2 to 6 had formed an unlawful association in furtherance of a common intention to kill Vijayan. Thus, except the charge under section 506(2) of IPC, which has no evidence for corroboration, the prosecution has proved other charges against the accused.
“Hence this court holds that all the seven accused (A1 to A7) are found guilty under section 120-B IPC. A1, A2 and A& 7 are found guilty are found guilty under Section 302 read with 120B of IPC. A2 to 6 are found guilty under section 302 read with Section 149 and 120-B of IPC”, the judge added.
The judge said when the accused were questioned about the quantum of sentence, they said they were not guilty.
“After considering reply of the accused regarding sentence, and bearing in mind the circumstances under which the murder of Vijayan had been carried out, and keeping in mind the guidelines of the high court and the Supreme Court regarding sentence, this court is of the opinion that it is not the rarest of the rare cases to award capital sentence to any of the accused. They deserve the minimum sentence of life imprisonment”, the judge added.
