Trio gets life for murder

Coimbatore: A 28 year old man and two of his accomplices were sentenced to life term imprisonment on Wednesday for murdering his brother eight years ago.

The convicts were identified as R Giri alias Velliangiri, 35, G Manoj Kumar, 28, and S Anand alias Vijayanand, 29. Two more accused D Sankar, 24 and P Balu, 30, were acquitted for want of evidence.

According to the prosecution, G Unni alias Ramesh, an auto driver, was a drunkard and used to pick up quarrels with his elder brother Manoj, also an auto driver, demanding money. On February 14, 2009, Unni quarrelled with Manoj and also abused him and his friend Balu.

The same night, Manoj, along with his friends, kidnapped Unni and took him to an isolated spot near Pannimadai where they assaulted him with an iron rod and later strangulated him to with a cable. They dumped the body in an abandoned well at Gopalsswamy Thottam and fled.

Eight months later, Velliangiri confessed to the murder when he was arrested in connection with another case. Subsequently, the police arrested others.

The case trial was held before the first additional district sessions judge M Christopher who also slapped a penalty of Rs 5,000 each on the trio.