Two escape gallows in triple murder case as HC heart bleeds for their children

TNN | Oct 26, 2017, 00:24 IST

Chennai: Two men, convicted and condemned for triple murders, escaped the noose on Wednesday, as Madras high court took pity on their three children and felt their hanging would leave the children high and dry.

"If the capital punishment is confirmed, then, the three children would have to necessarily, and possibly, would have an uncertain future. They have to live with an idea that the judiciary was responsible for the death of their fathers. When there are three young children of the convicts, who have a long future, the court must keep in mind that these three children, when they grow up and enter the society do not have any anger or any reason to wreak vengeance in any manner whatsoever. To this extent, we feel that it would only be appropriate that an alternative to death sentence can be imposed on Kamaraj and Elangovan," said a division bench of Justice P N Prakash and Justice C V Karthikeyan.

While hoping that the duo would reform due to the fact that it had been spared noose because of the children, the bench commuted their death sentence into life, on a condition that the two should not be considered for premature release unless they complete 30 years of actual imprisonment without any statutory remission or commutation. They shall also first serve their 10 years of rigorous imprisonment and start the imprisonment for life thereafter.

Kamaraj and Elangovan murdered a young doctor Sindhu, her mother Sathyavathi and grandmother Visalakshi for gain at their house in Namakkal in October 2011 and looted 28 sovereigns of gold ornamens found on their person. Convinced by solid evidence, the additional sessions court awarded death sentence to the duo on June 2, 2017 and the case was referred to the high court for confirmation.

The bench, making it clear that the case had been proved beyond doubt, went an extra mile, considered the future of children of both accused and victim, before commuting the death sentence awarded to the duo.

Noting that the high court takes the role of parent of families of both the death row prisoners and the victims, the judges said: "As parent of both the parties, the court cannot keep its eyes blind and say we have given this particular sentence and thereafter, we have nothing further to do with this case or with the family of the accused and the victims. The duty of the court extends further. We also would like to ponder that the children of the accused are also citizens of this country."

They also said that when the duo realises that they had been given life sentence and not death sentence due to their children, "it would certainly be a very important factor in the minds to reform."