The Madras High Court has on Wednesday turned heads towards its verdict of commuting the death sentence to life for the prime convict in the chilling honour killing case in Tamil Nadu. The death penalty was pronounced last year after 18 years since the incident happened and it has now been reduced to life and the current verdict has also overturned the previous one by releasing two other accused in the case. 

The honour killing of Kannagi and Murugesan will forever be etched as the dark past of Tamil Nadu and the commutation would also set a dreadful precedent in the future. The decades of a fight for justice for the honour killing that was executed for an inter-caste marriage has taken a crucial turn on Wednesday - June 8 and the current verdict had also showered the spotlight on the case. 

In September 2021, a special judge for the SC/ST had convicted the 13 accused in the murder of the inter-caste couple and awarded the death penalty to Kannagi's brother Maruthupandian, besides imposing a penalty of Rs 4.5 lakh. The judge had also acquitted two others from the case and all the 13 convicts have been lodged in prison. While Maruthupandian has got the death sentence, the 12 others were awarded life incarceration. 

The horrific honour killing had happened in 2003 and the verdict was pronounced in 2021, after 18 years. However, Maruthupandian's family had appealed to the Madras High Court to challenge the death penalty. After a months-long trial, the High Court has on Wednesday overturned the judgment of the SC/ST judge by commuting Maruthupandian's death sentence to life. Besides commuting the sentence of the prime convict, the High Court has also released accused Rangasamy and Chinnadurai from the case.

Following the judgement, the case now has 11 convicts including Kannagi's brother Maruthupandian and her father Duraiswamy, serving life imprisonment. The reports say that the prosecution would go for an appeal in the apex court against the high court's verdict. The verdict also has sparked strong reactions from the political leaders and the general public and has become a legal setback for the justice fight waged by Kannagi and Murugesan. 

The background of the chilling honour killing case: 

A young couple 25-year-old Murugesan and 22-year-old Kannagi got married in May 2003. They were natives of Puthukkooraippettai village near Virudhachalam in Tamil Nadu. Both of them had fallen in love during their college days at Annamalai University in Chidambaram. However, they both belonged to different castes. While Kannagi was from the Vanniyar community, Murugesan was a Dalit man and breaking the caste barriers, they have done an inter-caste marriage. 

Though they had tied the knot, they had decided to conceal their marriage to both of their families as they belonged to different castes. Kannagi feared that her parents would reject the marriage for marrying a Dalit man. After the marriage, Kannagi had stayed at her parent's house and she didn't divulge her marriage to her parents. She waited until Murugesan, who was a chemical engineering graduate, get a job. However, Kannagi's parents had somehow come to know about her marriage to a Dalit man. 

Her parents had outraged against the marriage and they gave more importance to their caste than to their daughter. As Kannagi was facing trouble from her parents for her inter-caste marriage, Murugesan, who had secured a job in Tirupur, had come to Kannagi's home and taken her with him in July 2003. Kannagi's father Duraisami, who was a panchayat president, his elder son Maruthupandian and several other relatives from the Vanniyar community held searches in several areas of Virudhachalam including Murugesan's house.

After incessant searches, Murugesan was caught by Kannagi's family in July 2003 and he was tortured by the family members to divulge the whereabouts of Kannagi. Duraisami and co, amid the prospect of showing allegiance to their caste, had tied Murugesan upside down into the village well and they had threatened that he would be put into well if he fails to give information about Kannagi. After the threat, Murugesan told Kannagi's father that Kannagi was staying at one of his relative's house.

After tracing the location, Kannagi's elder brother Maruthupandian had possessed Kannagi and both Murugesan and Kannagi were brought to the village and they were tied up before hundreds of people. To water the caste, Duraisami and several people from the Vanniyar community had forced Murugesan and Kannagi to drink poison. They drank it in the broad daylight as several people watched by, bowing down to the caste horror. The couple eventually had died and after their demise, Kannagi's family had burnt their bodies.

This horrible incident has been spelt as the first case of caste killing reported from the Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu. As soon as the incident triggered tensions and major attention from across the nation, the CBI had probed the matter and after several years, the Virudhachalam police had arrested 15 accused in connection with the case and of these 15, 11 belonged to Kannagi's family, two belonged to Murugesan's family, and the rest two were retired DSP Chellamuthu and Tamilmaran, the Inspector of Mangalampettai, who had later faced suspension due to corruption charges. These two police officers were accused of helping the murderers in the case.

After years of a legal trial, the special SC/ST court in Cuddalore has on September 24, 2021, pronounced the final verdict in the case. Justice S Uttamarasa has convicted 13 accused in the case after finding them guilty. The court has awarded the death penalty to Kannagi's brother Maruthupandian while Kannagi's father Duraiswami and 11 others including two police officers were given life imprisonment. While awarding punishments to 13 of the 15 accused, the Justice had ordered that the remaining two accused - Iyyasamy and Gunasekar- both relatives of deceased Murugesan, should be released. 

Speaking to the reporters, a police officer, concerning the acquittal of Iyyasamy and Gunasekar, has said that Iyyasamy was Murugesan's uncle and he was forced to give poison to Murugesan as Kannagi's father Duraisami, who belongs to Vanniyar community, had claimed that he won't be touching Murugesan as he was a Dalit. Furthermore, Kannagi's family had forced Iyyasamy and Gunasekar to burn his body. The Justice noted that Iyyasamy and Gunasekar were brought to the spot forcibly and they didn't have a direct role in the murder. 

The path of legal proceedings: 

After the incident, Murugesan's father Samikannu had filed a complaint at the Virudhachalam police station. Former DSP Chellamuthu, who was the then inspector of police in Virudhachalam, had tried to save the murderers by hiding the caste-killing as the reason and filed a case against four relatives each from both families. The then sub-inspector of Virudhachalam, P Tamilmaran, had also played a role in concealing the caste-killing in this case along with Chellamuthu. 

After bracing up a setback from the Virudhachalam police, Samikannu had knocked on the doors of the Madras High Court and filed a petition in which he demanded that the case must be handed over to the CBI. After the episodes of hearing, the High Court had transferred to the CBI in 2004 and after five years - on March 9, 2009, the CBI had filed a charge sheet in the case that mentioned the names of 15 people as accused. The names include Kannagi's father Duraisami, Kannagi's elder brother Maruthupandian, retired DSP Chellamuthu, police officer Tamilmaran, and Murugesan's relatives. After 18 years of the incident happened and after 12 years of the charge sheet filed, the Cuddalore SC/ST court has in September 2021 delivered its verdict and justice to Murugesan and Kannagi. 

In his judgment, Justice Uttamarasa has imposed the death penalty on Kannagi's brother Maruthupandian with a fine of Rs 4.56 lakh. The court has given three life sentences to Kannagi's father Duraisami and relatives Kandavelu, Jothi, Mani, Dhanavel, Anjapuli, Ramdoss, and Chinnadurai and all these accused were directed to pay Rs 4.15 lakh each as a penalty. The Justice had also given a life sentence to two police officers and imposed a penalty of Rs 1.15 lakh each. The Justice had further ordered the two police officers to give Rs 3 lakh each to Murugesan's family. Uttamarasa said, "The caste-related murders had created a black mark for human society. Kannagi's death should be the last in Tamil Nadu."