Six sentenced to life imprisonment for murder

Tiruchirapalli, July 12 (UNI) A lower court here today sentenced six persons to life imprisonment for the murder of a notorious gangster and acquitted ten others from the case.

Pronouncing the judgement, First Additional Session Judge V Ramamurthy found the six goons, namely S Hariharan alias Hari (24), A Kuzhandai Yesu (34), S Murugesan alias Brahmma (22), V Rajnath (21), M Abdul Raheem alias Raheem, K Srinivasan alias Seeni (21) guilty in the killing of one Augustin on October three, 2004 near Nagamangalam village here. He was the prime witness in a triple murder case.

In all 17 persons, including the dreaded gangster Muttai Ravi were cited as accused in the case. But Muttai Ravi was shot dead by the police in an encounter last year, when the trial was on. Hence the remaining 16 people were accused in the case.

Due to gang rivalry, Muttai Ravi and his associates murdered three persons a couple of years ago for which Augustin was cited as a prime witness. To disrupt the triple murder case, Muttai Ravi hired goons to murder Augustin in which the latter was hacked to death in 2004.

The judge also slapped a fine of Rs 1,000 each on the six convicted persons failing which they should undergo another one-month imprisonment.

As soon as the judgement was pronounced, the police whisked away the six convicted persons to the Central Prison here.

UNI