Sept. 3
INDIA:
Man challenges life term, SC asks why not death penalty
A man, convicted of murdering his wife and cutting her body into pieces,
was sentenced to life imprisonment by a Tamil Nadu trial court. The
conviction and sentence was upheld by the High Court.
Not satisfied with the verdict, septuagenarian Veerachamy appealed in the
Supreme Court which asked him to show cause as to why his life sentence be
not enhanced to death penalty.
On a minor altercation with his wife for giving away one of his belonging
to his son, Veerachamy killed her on June 18, 1998, cut her body into 27
pieces and buried them in a pit dug inside the room. The next day, he went
to police and gave an extra-judicial confession about the crime and after
investigation, the police charged him with murder and destruction of
evidence.
The trial court held him guilty of the offence and convicted him under the
2 charges while sentencing him to life imprisonment and a fine of Rs 3,000
for murder, and a sentence of 7 years imprisonment and a fine of Rs 2,000
for destruction of evidence. The Madras High Court upheld both the
conviction and sentence imposed on him by the trial court.
On appeal before the Supreme Court, a bench comprising Justice B.N.
Agrawal and Justice H.K. Sema, while admitting the petition for hearing,
issued notice to Veerachamy asking him to "show cause as to why the
sentence of life imprisonment awarded to him be not enhanced to death
sentence."
(source: Press Trust of India)
