Criminal Appeal no- 680681 of 2009
Supreme court of India
BENCH: Hon’ble Mr M. M Shantanagoudar, Hon’ble Mr.N Ramana
DATE OF JUDGEMENT: 29th March 2019
RELEVANT SECTIONS:
- Section 302 IPC (Punishment for murder)
- Section 364 IPC (kidnapping or abducting to murder)
- Section 201 IPC (Causing disappearance of evidence of offence )
BACK STORY
The culprit, P. Rajagopal, is the owner of a chain of hotels named Saravana Bhavan was keen to take Santha Kumar’s (the deceased) wife as his third wife forcefully. The culprit n order to woe she helped her family financially, gave her expensive gifts and also paid her medical bills. But when she refused his proposal, then she and her husband were abducted on 1st Oct 2001 by the accused henchmen. After this incident, Daniel presented himself as their good wisher and helped then in launching a complaint against P. Rajagopal. Few days before murder Daniel asked Jeevanjyoti to sent her husband to a Sai Baba temple where he had called some press reporters to expose the wrongdoings of P. Rajagopal.
On 18th Oct 2001, both Jeevanjyoti and her husband reached the Sai Baba temple as asked but there were no reporters. They were again abducted by P. Rajagopal’s man and were taken to Chengalpattu. Jeevan Jyoti was now separated from her husband and was forcefully taken by P. Rajagopal to Veppankulam, where they met an astrologer and witchcraft were performed on her. She later learned that her husband was spared by Daniel and had escaped. The victim contacted Jeevanjyoti on 21st Oct 2001 over the phone and informed her that P. Rajagopal had paid Daniel rupees five lakh to kill him.
On 26th Oct 2001 after Jeevanjyoti was forced to withdraw her police complaint, her husband was taken away by AN 2,3,4 and 6 and was asked by P. Rajagopal to be killed at Karai Illupu culvert. Later Jeevanjyoti was made to perform certain rituals by P. Rajagopal, which are performed by the wife when her husband is dead. On raising suspicion, Jeevanjyoti launched the first complaint against AN1 for her husband’s murder on 20th Nov 2001.
While on the other hand, on 31st Oct 2001, two forest guards found the deceased body in Tiger Chola forest and launched an FIR. The accused later surrendered and confessed his crime.
FORENSIC REPORT
The body was sent for a postmortem on 1st Nov, 20021. The report presented by the medical officer (PW35) showed unnatural death. The body was exhumed later for the second autopsy along with the facial superimposition which was done by Dr Jayaprakash to identify the body as Santha Kumar. DNA profiling and the dental study was also done for identification.
JUDGEMENT
The Supreme court dismissed the appeal and cancel the bail of the accused and asked the same to surrender immediately. The culprit was sentenced to incarceration of a lifetime under section 302, 201 and 364 of IPC.