INDIA: 2 GET DEATH FOR TAMIL NADU MINISTER'S MURDER

a sessions court in Tirunelveli, India, sentenced two people to death for the murder of Aladi Aruna, a former Tamil Nadu minister. The district principal judge K Baskaran, who pronounced the judgment the day before, gave details of the sentence. He said P Balamurugan and his associate D Azhagar deserved the maximum punishment for the murder of Aruna, who was also a former MP and an MLA, and his friend R Ponraj, a school teacher on December 31, 2004 at Alangulam, near Tirunelveli. The first-accused in the case, M Veldurai, was sentenced to three years' rigorous imprisonment for illegal possession of arms. He was also fined Rs 5,000. The judge acquitted six others - S A Raja, Arumugam, S Paramasivan, Kannan, Dhanasing and R Arjunan - of all charges.