MADURAI: Madras high court has confirmed the trial court’s conviction and life sentence imposed on an employee for murdering the cashier of a hotel in Virudhunagar in 2012. The deceased Rajamani was cashier at a hotel in Srivilliputhur where appellant Ravi was a daily wager.
Ravi used to demand money from Rajamani frequently. When Rajamani informed the owner about it, he reprimanded the appellant. Following this, Ravi threatened Rajamani and planned to eliminate him. Around 4am on January 17, 2012, when Rajamani was sleeping at the hotel, the appellant strangulated him using a coir rope and escaped. Srivilliputhur Town police investigated the case. A few days later, the appellant surrendered before a tahsildar and gave a confession.
In 2015, the principal district and sessions court in Srivilliputhur convicted and sentenced him to life imprisonment for offence under Section 302 (murder) of IPC. Challenging it, he had filed the present criminal appeal. Rejecting the appellant’s contention that the deceased could have died by suicide, a division bench of Justices P N Prakash and R Hemalatha observed that the evidence of the doctor and the postmortem certificate clearly show it as a case of homicide. The postmortem certificate has clearly mentioned that the deceased was strangulated with a coir rope and the rope was tightened by rotating it three times around his neck. A person, who commits suicide could not have rotated the rope around his neck all by himself.
The judges observed that the chain of events coupled with the missing accused and the ‘last seen’ theory are all unbreakable. The prosecution has proved the case beyond reasonable doubt that the appellant had committed the offence.
