A special court in Coimbatore sentenced on Monday 10 persons to undergo double life imprisonment and two others to single life imprisonment for murdering a Dalit man in Coimbatore in 2016.
Judge K. Vivekananthan of the special court for the trial of cases registered under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act awarded the punishment to the 12 persons, all hailing from Rathinapuri and nearby areas in Coimbatore.
The case relates to the murder of S. Thamaraiselvan, 27, by a group of men in front of his house at Chinnaraj Nagar at Rathinapuri on April 3, 2016.
K. Vignesh alias Vicky, 29, D. Mahendran, 33, V. Karthik, 28, Gavaskhan, 32, Suresh, 33, Naveen Kumar, 29, V. Prakasam, 30, Vimal Kumar, 30, ‘Ondrai’ Gowtham, 30, and S. Kalaivanan, 32, were awarded double life imprisonment. ‘Karupu’ Gowtham, 29, and Simon Christopher, 32, were awarded single life imprisonment.
While one accused, namely K. Vijay, 27, was acquitted, another accused K. Jeyasingh, 34, died before the completion of the trial.
Thamaraiselvan was working as a site supervisor of a construction firm. According to the police, Karthik and Mahendran made casteist remarks on Thamaraiselvan’s brother S. Prasanth and one of them headbutted him when he was passing through Thillai Nagar on April 3, 2016. After being informed by Mr. Prasanth, Thamaraiselvan went to Thillai Nagar and assaulted the duo.
Around 7.30 p.m., a group of men came to the house of the siblings with knives, cricket bat, iron rods, and wooden log, and assaulted Thamaraiselvan, Mr. Prasanth and their friend Jagadeesh. When Thamaraiselven ran to a nearby house to escape, the gang broke open the door and assaulted him further. He died while being rushed to the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital while the two others escaped with injuries. The Rathinapuri police arrested the assailants based on the complaint of Prasanth and investigated the case.
