The Special Court for SC / ST Act Cases has awarded death sentence to four persons while giving multiple life imprisonments to seven others for murdering three Scheduled Caste men at Udaippankulam under Thiruvenkatam police station limits in Tenkasi district in June 2014.
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According to prosecution, Kaliraj, Venugopal and Murugan, all belonging to Scheduled Caste from Udaippankulam, had prior enmity with the members of an intermediate caste from the same village. An armed gang attacked Kaliraj, Venugopal and Murugan on June, 1, 2014 in which the trio was murdered on the spot.
The Thiruvenkatam police arrested 25 persons in this connection. Even as the trial was going on, three accused passed away and the trial was continued against others.
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The SC / ST Court Judge Suresh Kumar on Tuesday found G. Ponnumani, S. Kuttiraj, A. Gurusamy, C. Kannan, M. Ulakkan, S. Kaliraj, V. Kannan, V. Balamurugan, R. Muthukrishnan, V. Kannan and K. Suresh guilty and adjourned the judgment for Thursday.
As the quantum of sentence was pronounced on Thursday around 8.30 p.m., Mr. Suresh Kumar awarded death sentence to Ponnumani, Gurusamy, Muthukrishnan and Kaliraj besides slapping a fine of ₹1.25 lakh each on them.
While imposing a fine of ₹1.15 lakh each on remaining seven convicts, the Judge also awarded multiple life imprisonments to all others. While life imprisonments were awarded to Ulakkan, Kuttiraj, C. Kannan, Balamurugan and V. Kannan, two life imprisonments were awarded to V. Kannan and Suresh.
The punishments will run concurrently.