Five get life for murdering SC man who complained about encroachments

Madurai: The third additional district and sessions (PCR) court in Madurai, on Wednesday, convicted and imposed a life sentence on five people who murdered a man belonging to the scheduled caste community as he complained against a former panchayat president for encroaching govt land in Odaipatti village in Madurai district in 2016.The case of the prosecution is that Chinna Karuppiah, 45, was a resident of Odaipatti village, which comes under the Thindiyoor village panchayat in Madurai district. In 2015, Karuppiah submitted a representation to the Madurai district collector complaining that the former president of the Thindiyoor panchayat, M Sampathkumar, had allegedly encroached upon nearly 1.20 acres of govt poramboke land.Due to this, Sampathkumar, his brothers M Seshan and M Paramasivam, conspired to murder Karuppiah. On Jan 21, 2016, when Karuppiah was going on his two-wheeler, Sampathkumar, Seshan, Paramasivam, their accomplices M Sekar, R Ramkumar and G Boominathan intercepted him. They threw a stone at the two-wheeler. in the impact, Karuppiah fell down. They abused him using his caste name and stabbed him using knives and escaped. Karuppiah, who sustained grievous injuries, died on the spot.Based on the complaint of Karuppiah's wife, Karuppayurani police registered a case and arrested the six accused. They were booked under various sections, including murder under IPC and under sections of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. After completing the investigation, police filed a final report before the trial court. Seshan died during the pendency of trial.On Wednesday, the judge, K Dhamodharan, convicted Sampathkumar, Paramasivam, Sekar, Ramkumar and Boominathan, and sentenced them to undergo life imprisonment for the offence of murder.