Village asst murder: Lifer for 5 sand smugglers

TIRUCHY: A Thanjavur court on Tuesday awarded life imprisonment to five persons, who murdered a village assistant for attempting to stop them from smuggling river sand.

There were complaints about smuggling of sand from Vilankulam River near Peravurani and C Boominathan (29) had passed on the information to revenue officials and the police department. This had prompted an enmity between Boominathan and the sand mafia.

On September 9, 2017, Boominathan went to the river banks to check smuggling of sand when he was assaulted by a gang. Boominathan became unconscious and the gang left the spot. Later, one of his neighbours Allirani, who was passing through the area noticed Boominathan lying unconscious and she informed his father, Chinnaiah. Boominathan was rescued by his father and was rushed to the Manamelkudi GH from where he was shifted to Thanjavur Medical College Hospital.

However, Boominathan succumbed to injuries on September 10, 2017.

Peravurani police, who initially registered a case of accident, altered it to murder. The police registered a case against Allirani (42), her brother Srinivasan (35), P Annamalai (30), P Chandrabose (32) and G Ayyappan (30) and all were arrested.

Meanwhile, the trial in the case was in progress at Thanjavur district sessions court. The Judge after hearing the arguments convicted all the five and awarded life imprisonment besides slapping a fine of Rs 15,000 on each of them.