HC confirms life-term for man who killed teenage girl

CHENNAI: A division bench of Madras High Court upheld the order of the trial court convicting a man for murdering a teenage girl in Manali Pudhunagar near Chennai in 2014 for not marrying him.

The bench comprising Justice PN Prakash and RMT Teekaa Raman passed the orders on dismissing the criminal appeal petition filed by one Jeyaraman. The petitioner prayed for a direction to set aside the order of Sessions Judge, Fastrack Mahila Court, Tiruvalluvar sentencing him to a life-term conviction with a penalty of Rs.5,000.

The appellant submitted that he did not kill the girl and it was an attempt of suicide by both of them. He further submitted that the girl slit her throat on her own and he himself also cut his throat.

He further claimed that the witnesses projected by the prosecution are not fair and the conviction was awarded only on the ground of circumstantial evidence.

However, the judges rejected the contention saying that the post-mortem report shows that there were about 32 cut injuries in the body of the deceased girl.

“We have no reasons to disbelieve the testimony of witnesses. The defense has not made any dent in the evidence of Dr Murugesan who conducted the post-mortem,” the judges held.

The case of the prosecution is that the accused had gone to the house of the deceased in March 2014. He asked the girl’s parents to marry her. However, the girl’s father and mother said that their daughter was a school-goer and they would consider his request once the girl was completing her studies. When the mother went to purchase milk, he murdered the girl in the bedroom.