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Double-lifer for 25 in TN double murder case

Our Correspondent in Cuddalore

District and sessions judge Periya Karuppiah handed down a double-lifer each to 25 accused in the case of a murder of two Communist Party of India-Marxists activists opposing illicit liquor in their locality. With this, the curtains have come down on an issue that had threatened law and order in Tamil Nadu and had rocked the assembly.

The judge also ordered fines, of which a portion is to be given to the families of Kumar and Anand, both 26, who were hacked to death by illicit brewers in June last year.

According to the prosecution, Shaktivel and Nagaraj, both brothers, and their men attacked the two in Pudupalayam in Cuddalore town, after they opposed the sale of illicit liquor.

Being members of a cadre-based party, Kumar and Anand had collected partymen to fight the social evil, sabotaged their sale, and also started educating the masses.

The murders took on political overtones, with the CPM taking the issue to the masses.

The Opposition, including the AIADMK, took up the case in the assembly.

Cuddalore town observed a bandh [general closure] over the issue.

The issue was threatening to become a major law and order problem, until the police arrested all suspects and proceeded rapidly with the conduct of criminal cases against them.

Observing that the main accused, the Shaktivel-Nagaraj brothers, deserved death sentences, the trial judge said he was sentencing them only to life terms considering their age. He also sentenced the rest to double-life terms, which they will undergo simultaneously.

Said a senior police official, "Most people, particularly misguided youths, take to mob violence, with the wrong belief that they cannot be identified and brought to justice. There is also a feeling that political patronage and the collective strength of families would help. This verdict has proved that wrong. Misguided youths and their families, often involved in caste clashes and mob violence, will now think twice before raising their hands. They now know that the long arm of the law will serve its purpose, mob or no mob, and only the misguided youth and their families end up suffering, with the perpetrators mostly going scot-free, after provoking them to do unlawful things."

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