Mettupalayam caste killing: Man gets death penalty for killing brother, minor SC girl-OxBig News Network

K. Vinothkumar, who was awarded the death penalty by the Special Court for SC/ST Act cases in Coimbatore on Wednesday.

Describing the murder of a 22-year-old man and his 16-year-old girlfriend belonging to a Scheduled Caste community near Mettupalayam in 2019 as a “rarest of rare” case, a Special Court in Coimbatore on Wednesday awarded a death sentence to the man’s elder brother for the caste killing.

Judge K. Vivekananthan of the Special Court for the trial of cases registered under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act awarded the punishment to K. Vinothkumar, 30, of Mettupalayam. The case relates to the murder of K. Kanagaraj and his minor girlfriend, also from Mettupalayam, in June 2019.

Kanagaraj belonged to a Most Backward Community, and the girl was from a Scheduled Caste community. Vinothkumar opposed his brother’s relationship with the girl, as she belonged to an SC community. He also feared that he would not be able to find a bride if his younger brother married a Dalit girl.

Vinothkumar plotted and executed the murder, while three of his friends — R. Kanthavel, 26, S. Iyappan, 36, and R. Chinnaraj, 40 — allegedly abetted the crime. He trespassed into the house where the couple stayed, at Rangarayan Odai in Vellipalayam near Mettupalayam, on June 25, 2019, and hacked them with a sickle. While Kanagaraj died on the spot, the girl died at a hospital four days later.

The court had held Vinothkumar guilty of the crime, and acquitted the three other accused on January 23. It heard arguments on the quantum of sentence on Wednesday. During the hearing, Bhavani B. Mohan, Special Public Prosecutor appointed by the government, urged the court to treat the incident as a “rarest of rare” case, and sentence Vinothkumar to life imprisonment without remission. “The judge observed that the murder was committed only on the grounds of caste, which made the case a rarest of rare one, and awarded capital punishment,” Mr. Mohan said.

Advocates S. Balamurugan and K. Arthur Kumar appeared for the girl’s mother.