New Delhi [India], April 28 : The Supreme Court on Monday upheld the conviction and sentence of eleven persons who were booked for the murder of a young couple, in a 2003 caste-based honour-killing case, in Tamil Nadu's Cuddalore.
The Madras High Court had, in June 2022, convicted and sentenced 11 out of the 13 persons who the trial court had convicted.
Today, a bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Prashant Kumar Mishra upheld the decision of the Madras High Court and found no reason to interfere with the same.
"A crime is an act against the State. But a wicked and odious crime, as the one we have just dealt with, is the ugly reality of our deeply entrenched caste structure. Honour-killing, as these are called, must get a strong measure of punishment", the bench noted in its 73-page judgement.
The top court bench also awarded Rs5 lakhs in compensation to the family of one of the victims, a boy.
"This compensation is liable to be paid by the State of Tamil Nadu to the persons mentioned above. We further clarify that this compensation would be in addition to the amount awarded or directed to be paid as compensation by the Sessions Court and High Court", the top court added.
The Court also criticised the long and inordinate delays, on the part of the prosecution, in this case, which led to a slow trial.
The court was dealing with a batch of appeals filed by eleven persons, who had all challenged their conviction, decided by the Madras High Court.
Originally, fifteen persons had been booked in the case who all underwent trial. The trial court convicted thirteen and acquitted two.
When the matter came up before the Madras High Court in appeal, it acquitted two more persons and upheld the conviction of the remaining eleven, which included two police officers.
The High Court also acquitted one of the police officers of certain offences under the SC/ST Act and the IPC. It, however, upheld his conviction in regard to other charges. His sentence was reduced from life-term to two years of rigorous imprisonment. The other police officer, however, was sentenced to life imprisonment, along with nine others.
The two police officers, KP Tamilmaran and M. Sellanuthu, were charged and convicted for having neglected their duties and disobeying
The law by not registering the FIR at the first instance with the intention to save the culprits.
All eleven had challenged their convictions before the Supreme Court, contending that there were inconsistencies and frequent contradictions in the testimonies of key prosecution witnesses.
The Supreme Court upheld the conviction and sentence of the eleven.
Advocates Rahul Shyam Bhandari (AOR), G. Priyadarshani and Satyam Pathak represented the victims' family pro bono. Advocate K. Keshwan represented the victims' family before the Madras High Court.
Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Vikramjit Banerjee represented the CBI.
Senior counsels Anjana Prakash, Ratnakar Dash, M Sathyanarayanan, Siddharth Aggarwal, S Nagamuthu and Gopalsankarnarayanan represented appellants (convicts).
The case stemmed from the gruesome murder of a couple in their early twenties, who were poisoned to death in their village, in front of onlookers.
The reason behind the brutal murder was that the girl, who belonged to the 'Vanniyar' community, had married a local boy, who was a member of the 'Dalit' community.
The masterminds behind the killing were none other than the father and brother of the girl, who now stand convicted by the top court along with nine others.
The Justice Dhulia led bench, in its judgement, did not mince words in referring to the murder as "dastardly" and noted, "So, at the root of this crime is the deeply entrenched hierarchical caste system in India, and ironically, this most dishonorable act goes by the name of honour-killing!"