Ex-DMK MLA sentenced to 10 years in prison in rape and murder case

Chennai, Dec 28: Former DMK MLA Rajkumar, who represented the Perambalur constituency, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison by Special Court in Chennai on Friday in connection with a 2012 case of alleged rape and death of a 15-year-old girl from Kerala.

In 2012, Rajkumar who represented the Perambalur constituency, his driver Mahendran and associate Jayashankar were arrested under IPC sections 376 (rape), 367 (a)(kidnap) and 302 (murder) based on a complaint filed by the victim's father.

According to reports, the girl, hailing from Peermedu in Idduki district of Kerala bordering Theni, was employed in the house of the former MLA as a domestic help since June 2012. But on June 28, she had called her father and pleaded with him to take her back. The very next day the girl's father was informed that she was not well and had been admitted to a private hospital Perambalur.

Perambalur police had registered a case of attempted suicide. The girl's family later shifted her to Theni Government Hospital where she died without responding to treatment.

(With PTI inputs)