INDIA: SEVEN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR DOCTOR’S MURDER IN TAMIL NADU

More than seven years after the killing of popular Chennai based neurosurgeon Dr S D Subbaiah the First Additional Sessions Court on 4 August 2021 sentenced seven of the ten accused to death sentences and two others to double life terms.
The seven convicted included two advocates. Delivering the verdict, Additional Sessions Judge-1 S Alli acquitted another accused after he turned an approver and was treated as a prosecution witness.
The surgeon was brutally hacked by his relatives over a property dispute with the help of a hired gang in broad daylight in front of his residence on 14 September 2013 and he succumbed to injuries after battling for life for nine days at a hospital.
After the murder, police based on the CCTV footages, arrested Dr James Satish Kumar and henchmen Murugan, Selvaprakash, Iyappan, school teacher Ponnusamy, his wife P Mary Pushpam and their sons P Basil, who is a lawyer, P Boris and Yesurajan.
The prime accused advocate B Williams, who went underground and surrendered before a court about five years after the incident took place.
Pronouncing the quantum of punishment, the Judge awarded double capital punishment to seven accused – Ponnusamy, Basil, Boris, Williams, Dr James Satish Kumar, Murugan and Selvaprakash for offences under Secs 302 (murder) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC.
Two other accused – Mary Pushpam and Yesurajan – were awarded double life terms, while Iyappan was acquitted after he turned an approver.
According to Iyappan, a property dispute at Anjugramam village in Kanyakumari district between the doctor and the prime accused Ponnusamy, who is a relative of the surgeon, led to the murder.