CHENNAI: A man from Nagaland who was arrested for the murder of an ATM security guard near Marina beach was found guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder by a city court. He was sentenced to 10 years rigorous imprisonment.
The court observed that the ATM guard mistook the man from Nagaland to be an ATM thief after his card got stuck a couple of times. The language barrier led to an argument and in the melee the accused stabbed the ATM guard with a knife that he was carrying.
The accused, Diethovolie Rakho from Kohima, had studied music from a college in Chennai in 2000. After pursuing higher studies at Pune, he had returned to Chennai in 2007 and was working with an IT firm, before he quit and decided to move to his native state.
On August 19, 2007, the 26-year-old went to an ATM at Ezhilagam building according to the prosecution. “The accused had sought the help of the deceased after the transaction got declined four times. The deceased woke up and had a verbal duel with the accused. While the accused did not know Tamil, he understood that abusive language was used and when the guard asked him to get out of the ATM, the accused was provoked and stabbed him,” the prosecution told the court.
The security guard was declared dead by doctors, after which the Anna Square police arrested the accused.
Though the prosecution sought to prove the accused guilty for murder, the court noted that the prosecution did not have a case for direct motive in the case. “The accused and deceased were not known to each other before the incident,” additional sessions judge D V Anand noted and cited the evidence submitted and observed that since the accused attempted to withdraw money after midnight, the deceased might have suspected the accused.
The court further noted that it is not uncommon for people from Nagaland to carry weapons for their safety and since the accused used the weapon he had for his defence to inflict fatal injuries, the court held that he is guilty for committing culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
