A DMK leader M Rajkumar, who is a former member of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly was sent to 10 years rigorous imprisonment by a Special Court on Friday for rape and death of a 15-year-old girl at Perambalur, 277 km south west of Chennai.
This is the first verdict to be delivered by the exclusive court which was set up in September 2018 as per the directive of the Supreme Court to fast-track criminal cases involving serving and former MLAs and MPs in the country.
The prosecution case was that in June 2012, the girl’s parents who were daily wage earners in an estate at Peermdeu in Kerala’s Idukki district sent her to the residence of Rajkumar who had assured them that he would look after her education and well- being.
The parents and the girl were bought to Rajkumar’s residence at Perambalur on June 23, 2012 by Jaishankar, a close aide of the DMK leader. After two days,the parents were sent back to Kerala. But the girl started calling her parents immediately aftet their return and pleaded with them to take her back to Kerala.
Before he could return to Perambalur to take the girl back home, her father received a call from the aide of Rajkumar stating that his daughter had consumed insecticide because of the delay in his arrival to take her home and they had admitted her to a private hospital at Tiruchi. The father rushed to Perambalur and got his daughter admitted to the Theni Government Hospital where she died on July 6, 2012.
During her final rites at Idukki in Kerala, the parents came across injuries on her body and they filed a complaint with the police. Following the complaint, the police ordered an autopsy which conclusively proved that the girl had been sexually abused many times.
The prosecution charge was that Rajkumar had repeatedly raped the girl many times between June 23 to June 26 2012 making use of her helplessness. The initial trial was held at the Mahila Court and this was subsequently transferred to the Special Court in September 2016.
J Shanti, the Special Judge, sentenced Rajkumar for 10 years rigorous imprisonment under sections 376 (rape), 304 (culpable homicide) and 120 (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code. Jaishankar, the close aide of the DMK leader too was sentenced for 10 years in abetting the rape and murder.
Though many witnesses turned hostile during the trial, the court relied on the autopsy report as a substantial piece of evidence. The sentencing of Rajkumar in the rape and murder has comes closely on the heels of a video of another DMK leader at Perambalur assaulting a woman beautician despite pleas from her associates to leave her alone going viral. The video had disturbed the viewers because of the cruelty shown by Selvaraj, the DMK leader, while kicking the lady.
Though party chief MK Stalin had removed Selvaraj from the membership of the party, the latter was readmitted into the DMK last month.