A Tiruppur court on Tuesday awarded death penalty to Chinnasamy – the mastermind behind the honour killing of Sankar, a dalit man. Sankar was hacked to death in broad daylight at Udumalaipettai in March 2016, by killers hired by his wife Kausalya's father, who belongs to the Thevar community.
The judge, Alamelu Natarajan, pronounced that Chinnasamy would get the death penalty for murder, 10 years for criminal conspiracy, and three years for other charges. He will be hanged after he serves the sentence on the other charges. The accused will serve the jail time concurrently.
The court also awarded death penalty to five other accused - Jegadesan, Manikandan, Selvakumar, Kala Tamilvaanan and Mathan.
Dhanraj alias Stephan, was awarded life imprisonment with no possibility of remission, and Manikandan (Pattiveeranpatty) was sentenced to 5 years in prison.
The penalty to be paid by the convicts will be distributed equally among Kausalya, and Sankar's father.
Meanwhile, the court acquitted Kausalya's mother Annalakshmi, who was accused in the case. Accused Pandi Durai, who’s an uncle of Kausalya, was also acquitted. The court also acquitted Prasanna, a relative of Kausalya.
What Happened in Court
The Tiruppur District Sessions court hasn't seen such a large media contingent for quite some time now. As hordes of reporters waited outside, nine accused in the Sankar murder were brought in a police van.
The four men who were caught on video hacking 22-year-old Sankar to death on 13 March 2016 walked into court, their heads down. Each one of them sported vermilion and sandalwood paste on their foreheads.
As they waited outside the courtroom, Kausalya's parents were smiling nervously, speaking in hushed tones to the police officers who had accompanied them.
At 12:00 noon, the judge, Alamelu Natarajan got down to business. She first addressed Kausalya's father Chinnasamy – the prime accused in the case. A taxi driver and financier, this man belonging to the socially dominant Thevar community was guilty of planning and executing the murder of the young Dalit man who had married his daughter.
The judge asked Chinnasamy what punishment he deserved. When he replied that he had nothing to do with the crime, the judge abruptly told him that she was only asking about his punishment. “Give me minimum punishment. I have a son who is going to college,” he said. Then swiftly, the judge addressed seven other accused in the case, asking each one what punishment they deserved.
In sombre tones, the men who had no qualms in hacking Sankar to death said they deserved minimum punishment.
The judge however did not address Kausalya's mother Annalakshmi, her maternal uncle Pandidurai and another accused who is a relative.
The Special Public Prosecutor appointed by the Tamil Nadu government for the case, U Sankaranarayanan, argued that the case should be classified as 'rarest of rare', and therefore all the guilty deserved capital punishment.
It was a case of caste hatred and was 'diabolically planned and cruelly carried out', he said.
Raising her tone, the judge told the defence, "Any murder is serious. Sankar was also a human being."
Kausalya’s Father – a Mastermind With Evil Intentions?
The judge agreed that the father was the mastermind but questioned why he deserved capital punishment.
The prosecutor argued that Kausalya's father had planned, paid and allowed for this brutal murder to happen in 'broad daylight on a busy road.’
Taking note of this point the judge observed that while he may have decided that the couple had to die, he was not responsible for the place and time at which the crime took place.
He is the father of a 19-year-old girl and he was angry with had happened. At that point if he had not had people to execute this crime it may not have taken place. He had reason to be angry.The Judge
She further stated that the intention, i.e."if it was a caste crime” had to be proved.
Following this, the judge sentenced Chinnasamy and the other accused. Chinnasamy was awarded the death penalty, and so were the five other accused who executed the killing.
(This article has been published in an arrangement with The News Minute.)
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