The Hindu : Kerala News : Murder: court confirms death sentence

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 06, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Murder: court confirms death sentence

By Our Staff Reporter

KOCHI, OCT. 5. A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court today confirmed the death sentence by the Kollam Sessions Court awarded to Rama Subramanian alias Mani for murdering his employer- a widow and her three children.

The Bench comprising Justice J. B. Koshy and Justice J. M. James delivered the judgment confirming the sentence while dismissing an appeal filed by the accused against the death sentence. The accused hailed from Thirutharappapuram at Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu.

The prosecution case was that he had murdered Sabithabeevi (38), her three children, Jasmin (13), Jiyas (9), and Navas (6) and robbed her gold ornaments. The murder took place in August, 1999.

Servant

According to the prosecution, Hashim of Injavila, husband of Sabithabeevi had brought the accused from Tirunelveli and employed him as a servant for doing jobs in his poultry farm. Hashim had died in 1997. His widow then entrusted the task of running the poultry farm to the accused. The service of Subramanian was terminated when he began to misbehave with her daughter, Jasmin. It was to wreak vengeance for terminating his job that he had committed the murder and robbery.

Confirming the sentence, the Bench said that he had committed the murder of a widow and her three children in a brutal manner. Therefore, the court said that it did not see any ground to interfere with the judgement of the lower court.

Confidence

While awarding the sentence, the Sessions Judge had said that the accused had come to the family as a servant and gained the confidence of the family. In fact, the family had treated him as one of their members. The lower court added that he had committed the murder in a `diabolic and cruel manner'. The sessions court, therefore, observed that it was a rarest of rare cases warranting capital punishment. The sessions court found him guilty of the offence punishable under 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and ordered that he be hanged by the neck until he was dead.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Kerala