The Tirupur Principal District and Sessions Judge on Tuesday, November 12, awarded death penalty to six people in the sensational honour killing of a 23-year-old dalit man in March 2016. The death convicts include the father-in-law of the young victim.
The court also sent a convict to life imprisonment and another accused involved in the murder got five years of jail term,The Indian Express reported.
V sankar, an engineer, was hacked to death in TN's Udumalpet in March last year for marrying a woman belonging to another caste.
A video of the murder had surfaced on social media, creating an outrage across Tamil Nadu. The video showed a group of bike-borne men attacking the couple before fleeing from the scene.
Sankar was walking along with his 19-year-old wife Kausalya, when the men attacked the duo with sharp weapons. It had been eight months since the couple got married.
Kausalya who now lives with Sankar's family said, "I had waited for more than one and half years to get justice. The judgment has increased my belief in judiciary."
Sankar and Kausalya had gone against the wish of the latters' family and got married. Following this, the bride's family members, who had political clout as they belonged to the influential Thevar caste, were unhappy.
Of the six found guilty by the court, Kausalya's father, who had been listed as the main accused, has been sentenced to death. The young widow's mother Annalakshmi, an acquaintance identified as Prasanna and Uncle Pandi Thurai were acquitted in the case.
It is observed that this is the first time a trail court is handing out death sentence in an honour killing incident. Kausalya said, "It shows that the trial court approached the case differently. So the judgment will serve as an example in all honour killing cases."
She added, "It is for the first time in the county such a strong verdict has been pronounced in an honour killing case. So our wait did not go in vain."
"I would appeal against the acquittal of three of the 11 accused," Kausalya said, referring to the acquittal of her mother and 2 others.
