Advocate couple gets double life term for client’s murder

Coimbatore

According to the prosecution, ET Rajavel, 44, from Sundarapuram and his wife Mohana, 40, both advocates had murdered Ammasai from Rathinapuri with the help of two others and cremated her body. Rajavel masterminded the murder of the woman, who approached him for legal services regarding a property dispute and claimed that it was his wife Mohana. He faked the death of his wife as she was wanted by police in Odisha in a financial fraud case involving 12 crores. A woman missing case registered by Rathinapuri police in 2011 and was later altered to murder, when the incident came to be known. The drama began to unfold, when Rajavel approached the sub-registrar office to register a property in the name of Mohana. When officials declined to register in the name of a dead woman, Rajavelu moved the court to scrap the death certificate issued by the corporation by claiming ignorance of the issue.

Following a complaint from Corporation, the Podanur police arrested the advocate’s accomplices P Ponraj and P Palanisamy, who then spilled the beans. Then, the advocate couple, who went into hiding, was arrested by police at Kovalam in Thiruvananthapuram on December 5, 2013. Police filed a charge sheet in the case on February 11, 2015 and 51 witnesses, including the daughter of the murdered woman were examined in the case which was heard at the fifth additional district court in Coimbatore. During the course of investigation P Ponraj turned into an approver.

On hearing the case, Judge TH Mohammed Farooq pronounced the judgment awarding life sentence to Rajavel and his wife for forgery, while Rajavel was given another life for murder.

In addition, Mohana and Palanisamy were awarded life term for abetment of murder, besides the trio were served with seven years’ jail for destroying evidence, cheating and creating fake documents with an intent to cheat. The jail term will run concurrently. Further, the judge slapped a total fine amount of Rs 1.65 lakh on them and ordered Rs 1.20 lakh to be given as compensation to the family of Ammasai. After judgment, the three persons were lodged at Coimbatore Central Prison.