Tamil Nadu neurosurgeon murder case: Conspirator turns approver

In a twist to the sensational murder case of a neurosurgeon in 2013, one of the accused turned an approver saying he was 'pricked by his conscience'.

Published: 12th December 2018 05:49 PM 

Image used for representational purpose only.
By PTI

CHENNAI: In a twist to the sensational murder case of a neurosurgeon here in 2013, one of the accused turned an approver saying he was 'pricked by his conscience'.

P Iyappan deposed that on September 14 that year, he and two others, Murugan and Selvaprakash, waited for the doctor S D Subbiah to emerge from a hospital.

When the doctor walked up to his car, Iyappan said Murugan hit the surgeon first on his head and later Selvaprakash hacked him.

Iyappan, in his deposition before an additional sessions court on Tuesday, said he was on a motorcycle just behind the victim's car when the duo attacked the doctor.


Soon after the two assailants committed the crime, he said all three of them fled the scene in the motorcycle.

On why he chose to confess, Iyappan said he was 'pricked by his conscience' that a doctor was murdered for money and jobs abroad.

"I am making this confession voluntarily," he added.

Special Public Prosecutor N Vijayaraj examined him and defence counsel Raghunathan cross-examined the witness.

Also, Iyappan said Murugan apprised him just before the murder that each one of them would be paid Rs 50 lakh for executing the crime and were also assured of jobs abroad.

According to Iyappan, a property dispute at Anjugramam village in Kanyakumari district between the doctor and Ponnusamy (accused-1) led to the crime.

With Iyappan turning approver, the total number of accused in the case has now come down to nine.

DVAC officials raid TNPCB office

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

VILLUPURAM, DECEMBER 13, 2018 00:00 IST

Officials from the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) on Wednesday raided the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board office here and seized unaccounted cash of Rs. 3 lakh. According to sources, the raid was carried out following complaints that the officials had been collecting bribe for issuing no-objection certificates to factories. Several officials, including the Assistant Engineer Nakheeran, were questioned.

Siddha students stage sit-in protest

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

TIRUNELVELI, DECEMBER 13, 2018 00:00 IST

Students of Government Siddha Medical College staging a dharna in Palayamkottai on Wednesday.M. Lakshmiarunm_lakshmiarun

Demand a new hostel building and better basic amenities

Demanding a new hostel building and better basic amenities in the college, students of Government Siddha Medical College in Palayamkottai staged sit-in dharna for a while on their college premises on Wednesday.

While the women’s hostels functioning on the college premises is battling acute water crisis for the past several years, the men’s hostel at Vannarpet, a dilapidated structure, is to be razed down shortly. As precursor, the hostel students have been asked to move out. The affected male students staged dharna on the college premises on Wednesday demanding a temporary hostel with mess facility until the new hostel building comes-up. As the students started raising slogans to highlight their demand, police personnel were deployed in the college campus.

The protesting students said they were asked to move out of the hostel to facilitate the demolition of the existing hostel building in deplorable condition with the assurance that temporary hostel with mess would be created within 90 days.

“However, the officials have comfortably forgotten the promise they gave. While no step has been taken to commence the construction of the new hostel, there is no sign of starting the temporary hostel with mess so as to help the students studying from various parts of Tamil Nadu. If not, we’ll continue to agitate against the official apathy,” they said.

The college authorities assured the protesting students that their demand would be forwarded to the government and informed them that they would be temporarily settled down in a hostel built near Reddiyarpatti on Palayamkottai outskirts for the Government Law College students, which is yet to be occupied. However, the protestors refused to accept it and continued their agitation even after 8.15 p.m.

Salem Government Hospital witnesses increase in deliveries

Syed Muthahar Saqaf

SALEM, DECEMBER 13, 2018 00:00 IST

567 normal deliveries and 461 Caesarean section performed in November

The Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department of the Government Mohan Kumaramangalam Medical College Hospital (GMKMCH) has achieved a major milestone by crossing 1,000 deliveries this November.

The Department, one among the three Reproductive and Child Health Centres of Excellence in the State, registered as many as 1,028 deliveries last month, thanks to the team of dedicated doctors and modern infrastructure. While 567 were normal deliveries, 461 were Caesarean section.

Set up in 1990, the Department accounted for 500 beds and pregnant women belonging to weaker sections from Salem and surrounding districts of Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri, Namakkal, Erode, Villupuram and Karur get admitted here for safe delivery.

According to M. K. Rajendran, the Dean, GMKMCH, the Department accounted for a committed team of obstetricians, neonatologists, anaesthetists functioning 24 x 7. The State government and the National Rural Health Mission have sanctioned liberal funds for the creation of additional facilities and the procurement of sophisticated equipment in the recent past.

Infrastructure

Dr. Rajendran said that the labour room of the Department headed by S.S. Subha was well-equipped with labour cots, continuous foetal monitoring machines, central oxygen supply facility, multipara monitor, and a blood bank.

The Department has an excellent set up of obstetric intensive care unit with ventilator support, and high dependency unit with facilities that were not available even in the corporate hospitals.

The department also has a spacious patient waiting area, and a shed for attenders sponsored by the Salem Corporation. While 597 deliveries took place here in January this year, it was 618 in February, 764 in March, 698 in April, 806 in May, 796 in June, 811 in July, 864 in August, 837 in September and 935 in October. “We had set a target of 1,000 deliveries in November, but exceeded the target and managed 1,028 deliveries”, Dr. Rajendran told The Hindu .

Apart from obstetric case, the Department also excelled in family planning services by performing laparoscopic hysterectomies and lap sterilization. The Department also serves as a training centre for skilled birth attendants-nurses and basic emergency obstetrics and newborn care for fresh doctors.

We had set a target of 1,000 deliveries in November, and managed 1,028 deliveries.

Dr. M. K. Rajendran,

Dean, GMKMCH

Kerala man’s death penalty commuted

Krishnadas Rajagopal

NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 13, 2018 00:00 IST

Courts never considered whether condemned man could reform: SC Bench

The Supreme Court on Wednesday commuted the death penalty of a man who murdered six of a family, including children, in Kerala on the ground that none of the courts that heard the case bothered to examine the probability of his “reform or rehabilitation and social reintegration.”

A three-judge Review Bench, led by Justice Madan B. Lokur, commuted the death penalty of M.A. Antony to life imprisonment, setting aside its own judgment.

The Review Bench said none of the courts, from the trial court to the Supreme Court, gave a thought to the possibility of his reform.

“There is no meaningful discussion on why, if at all, the appellant [Antony] could not be reformed or rehabilitated,” Justice Lokur observed.

Antony, represented by advocate Manoj George, murdered the family in January 2001 after they refused to lend him money to travel to the West Asia for a job.

The Review Bench held that Antony was in dire straits and had gone to the house in the hope of getting some money and after the refusal, he decided to “kill all of them.”

The Bench held that though the socio-economic condition of a convict was not a factor in disproving his guilt, it was a factor that must be taken into consideration for awarding him an appropriate sentence.

However, Justice Lokur, writing the verdict for the Bench comprising Justices S.Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta, did not agree with Mr. Manoj George’s submission that the life of a condemned man should be spared because he had spent years on death row.

“There are a number of cases where convicts have been on death row for more than six years, and if a standard period was to be adopted, perhaps each and every person on death row might have to be given the benefit of commutation of the death sentence to life imprisonment,” Justice Lokur said.

The Review Bench agreed that there was no material to back the State of Kerala’s claim that Antony was a “hardened criminal.”

The Bench also said the courts should consider whether a death row convict from a poor background got adequate legal representation.

“The poor are more often than not at the receiving end in access to justice and access to the remedies available,” Justice Lokur said.

More seats in medical courses likely

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

CHENNAI, DECEMBER 13, 2018 00:00 IST

The State government expects to add more seats to postgraduate and undergraduate medical courses next academic year.

As many as 60 seats in various specialities across MD/MS and at least two new self-financing colleges, with an intake of 150 students each in MBBS, could be added, said S. Geethalakshmi, vice-chancellor, Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University.

Speaking on the sidelines of the inauguration of an Ayush Wellness Centre on Wednesday, she said the Kovai Medical Centre and the Panimalar group of institutions had applied for setting up medical colleges.

While the former’s application had gone to the governing body of the Medical Council for approval, the university was in the process of completing formalities for the latter, before sending it for approval to the Council. “We will then give a letter of consent for affiliation. After the Medical Council gives permission, we will send an inspection team,” Ms. Geethalakshmi, said.

The university has also noticed a better performance by first year students. “Usually 93% of students pass in the first year. This year it has gone up to 95%,” she said.

Wellness centre

Earlier, Health Minister C. Vijaya Baskar commissioned a wellness centre. The 5,000 sq.ft centre, set up at an estimated cost of Rs. 1.66 crore, includes dedicated rooms for OPD treatment for yoga, Ayurveda, naturopathy and siddha systems of medicine.

Equipment worth Rs. 20 lakh has been installed. The facility will not only help the public but also medical students of the university, the Minister said.

SC commutes death sentence of rape and murder convict to life

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:13.12.2018

The Supreme Court on Wednesday commuted the death sentence to life in prison for a convict who had raped and murdered a threeyear old girl in Amravati in Maharashtra.

A bench of Justices Madan B Lokur, S Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta said the trial court and Bombay high court had not taken into consideration the probability of reformation, rehabilitation and social re-integration of the convict into society and set aside their orders awarding death sentence. It said even in cases where there is no chance of reformation, the long duration of imprisonment beyond 14 years could be awarded instead of death sentence.

“We should not forget that the criminal, however ruthless he might be, is nevertheless a human being and is entitled to a life of dignity, notwithstanding his crime. Therefore, it is for the prosecution and the courts to determine whether such a person, notwithstanding his crime, can be reformed and rehabilitated. To obtain and analyze this information is certainly not an easy task but must nevertheless be undertaken,” the bench said.

The court was hearing a plea of the convict who was awarded death sentence by a trial court in Amravati in September 2008 for raping and murdering a 3-year-old girl in 2007. The lower court’s verdict was upheld by the high court in 2009.

The court said there is no conclusive study on deterrent impact of death sentence and that it has a chilling effect.

Even in cases where there is no chance of reformation, the long duration of imprisonment beyond 14 years could be awarded instead of death sentence

SUPREME COURT
On reducing death sentence