Life for Chennai bizman, son and 4 others for murdering employee in 2010
In June 2010, the father-son duo conspired and had their car driver, A Hemakumar alias Babu, murdered after a rumour spread in the office that he was getting close to Krishnamoorthy's daughter.
S Krishnamoorthy and K Pradeek
CHENNAI: A city businessman, his son, and four others were on Thursday sentenced to life imprisonment by a Chennai court in connection with the 2010 murder of one of their drivers, whose genitalia was severed before death and then the body dumped in Kodaikanal.
Abhiramapuram police had arrested the businessman, S Krishnamoorthy (70), his son K Pradeek (31) – both directors of M/S KSR Freight Forwarders Pvt Ltd – and four others, R Kannan (51), S Vijayakumar (46), D John (47) and M Senthil (41) after investigations into a missing complaint by the deceased's father led to police unravelling the murder.
In June 2010, the father-son duo conspired and had their car driver, A Hemakumar alias Babu, murdered after a rumour spread in the office that he was getting close to Krishnamoorthy's daughter. At that time, the woman had separated from her Delhi-based husband and stayed with her parents. Further, one of their staff had told Krishnamoorthy and Pradeek about a wordy quarrel between Babu and her.
Pradeek had taken Babu to an apartment in Chromepet owned by the family where Babu was brutally tortured and murdered. Babu's body was recovered from the Dum Dum rock area in Kodaikkanal by the police, who probed the missing complaint by the family.
The investigating officers in the case, then Abhiramapuram Inspectors A Murugesan (now retd) and M Rayappan submitted enough documentary evidence to prove the chain of events, leading to the conviction of the accused.
"The act of such violence caused by the accused would definitely pose a threat to society. Showing leniency will send a wrong signal to the society that too for the youth," said S Tasneem, II additional sessions judge and sentenced all of them to life imprisonment.
COURT DECREE
> Krishnamoorthy's daughter, one of the prosecution witnesses, turned hostile and alleged police threatened her to give evidence against her father and brother. The court held it was not believable
> The court also rejected the claim by Krishnamoorthy and his son Pradeek that they were threatened. "In that case, the accused, being MD and export in-charge of an MNC, would have given a complaint against the police. At least after their release, they would have sent a legal notice," it stated
> A total fine of Rs 14 lakh was imposed on the accused, of which the father-son duo are to pay Rs 10 lakh
