4 Maoists get life for Panchayat chief's murder

The special judge P Chenthooripandi awarded life sentence to Krishnappa, Narayanappa, Nagappa and Venkatagiri. Of the 15 accused, 4 were awarded life sentences while 8 others were acquitted. Three of the suspects were killed in separate incidents when the trial was on. The four punished by court were members of MCCI, which later merged with CPI (Maoist)in 2004.

Venkatesh, who initially owed allegiance to the MCCI, was elected as a councillor and later elected as chairman in 1996 with the support of the accused persons. Then he allegedly shifted his loyalty to DMK and was working to strengthen the party, which infuriated the leftextremist group.

After shifting allegiance, Venkastesh reportedly opposed Maoist activists and tried to stop flow of donation from the public to MCCI. Due to the enmity arising out of this, he was murdered on May 8, 2002 at Thali bus stand in full public view. The MCCI hit team hurled a bomb, and shot him using guns after pouring acid on him. During the trial, three of the suspects were murdered in separate incidents.  

At the conclusion of trial on Tuesday, the special judge P Chenthoorpandi pronounced the judgement on the case. N Vijayaraj, appeared as special Public Prosecutor for the case. All the accused were tried for offences, including murder, and criminal conspiracy. At end of the trial, four persons were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment while others were acquitted.