Six sentenced to life for murder of PMK functionary

A court today convicted and sentenced six men to life imprisonment for the killing of a PMK functionary in violence at Marakkanam near here which had led to a political storm in Tamil Nadu nearly three years ago.
Violence had erupted on April 25, 2013 between workers of the PMK, a party dominated by Vanniyars, a most backward community (MBC), and villagers - some of them Dalits - off Marakkanam near here. At that time, the PMK workers were on their way to Mamallapuram for a party meet.
In the violence which saw torching of buses, shops and some hutments, two men, Selvaraj and Vivek, both PMK functionaries , were found dead.

It was alleged by PMK that both were murdered and the case was transferred to CB-CID on May 12, 2013 by the state government following a political storm in Tamil Nadu.
In the case related to Selvaraj, the second Additional District Court Judge, Tindivanam, P Selva Muthukumari, today found six men guilty of murder and other offences.
M Manikandan and V Raghu were convicted of murder and rioting and E Senthil Kumar, S Parinathan, M Raju and M Sekar were convicted of murder and rioting with deadly weapons.

All of them were sentenced to life imprisonment for murder. For rioting, they were sentenced to one year rigorous imprisonment, with the sentences to run concurrently.

Asked on evidence that helped secure conviction for the accused, Additional Public Prosecutor, N Ganesh Gandhi, said a mobile phone played a key role.
"We proved that the mobile phone of the deceased was in the possession of the first accused Manikandan and he had used it and it was among the key evidences that helped secure conviction for the accused," he told PTI.
In all, 42 witnesses were produced by the prosecution, out of whom some had turned hostile, he said.
Also, 72 documents and eleven material objects, including weapons were marked as exhibits, he said. The case related to Vivek, another victim, is pending.