Tamil Nadu Dalit triple murder case: All 27 accused awarded life term

Chennai: The Special Court for Exclusive Trial of Cases under SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act in Sivaganga on Friday awarded life sentences to all the 27 convicts in the 2018 sensational murder of three dalits at Kachanatham village in the southern Sivaganga district of Tamil Nadu.

Special Court Judge G. Muthukumaran, who had convicted the 27 accused in the case on August one, on Friday pronounced the quantum of sentences and awarded life terms to them.

Three members belonging to the Scheduled Caste community were murdered and several others sustained grievous injuries when a group of people from the dominant community attacked them with deadly weapons following a dispute over presenting temple honours in the village on May 28, 2018.

The members of the dominant caste entered the households of the SC and attacked them indiscriminately on May 28 night after disconnecting the power supply in which three members K. Arumugam, A. Shanmuganathan and V. Chandrasekhar were hacked to death.

In all 33 people, , including four juveniles, from a dominant community were named as accused in the case. While one of them was absconding and one died during the trial.

The had on August three heard the 27 convicts and the family members of the victims through video-conferencing on the quantum of sentence, as the district police sought exemption from personally producing them in the court citing possible law and order problems.

In 2019, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court had observed that the brutality with which the crime was committed by a mob from the dominant community had a telling effect on the peace and tranquility of society at large. (UNI)