The Hindu : Man, mother get life term for Kilpauk murder

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 04, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Tamil Nadu-Chennai

Man, mother get life term for Kilpauk murder

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI MAY 3 . A sessions court has sentenced three persons, including a woman, to life imprisonment and 35-year rigorous imprisonment each, in connection with a murder.

The first additional sessions court judge, Ramasubramaniam, ordered that the sentences would run concurrently.

The case relates to the murder of Uma Maheswaran alias Magesh of Kilpauk in August 5, 1999.

Those convicted are Ramesh of Anna Nagar, his mother, Sasikala, and their friend, Srinivasan of Triplicane.

The case, which had all the ingredients of a crime thriller, was initially registered as a `man missing complaint' by the Kilpauk police and later transferred to the Central Crime Branch police, who unravelled the plot.

The clothes worn by the victim and other circumstantial evidence were instrumental in getting conviction for the accused.

According to the prosecution, Magesh, Ramesh and Srinivasan were friends. They were involved in gambling and Magesh gave a flat to Ramesh and Sasikala as part of a financial deal. When Magesh started demanding the flat again and the relationship between him and the others strained. Following this, Ramesh, Srinivasan and Sasikala planned to murder Magesh.

As part of their plan, they took him to Bangalore, but could not murder him as the circumstances were not "appropriate". They then lured him to Tirupati and on the return journey, strangled him to death. They came to Chennai with the body in a car and went to Magesh's house and asked the inmate, Vijaya, for his dress. They informed Vijaya that Magesh was in the vehicle but did not want to come to the house.

They then removed the bloodstained clothes of Magesh and put on a new pair of clothes on the body. The trio then took the body to Chandragiri near Tirupati and dumped it on a slope and returned to the city. The local police who found the body completed the postmortem and kept the body in a mortuary, said the prosecution.

Meanwhile, Magesh's father lodged a complaint with the Kilpauk police. The family then moved the High Court for transferring the case to the Central Crime Branch.

The DCP, CCB, S.S. Krishnamoorthy, said a police team was put on the job from February 2000. Vijaya, who claimed that the three persons had come and asked for Magesh's clothes, provided the first clue. Then the clothes recovered from the Chandragiri police were identified as that of Magesh.

The police established the conspiracy and proved the murder in the court. The trial was conducted before the then first additional sessions judge, F. Akbar.

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