TIRUNELVELI

The Mahila Court here on Wednesday awarded death sentence to two persons who robbed, sexually assaulted and murdered a primary health centre nurse in Kallidaikurichi in 2008.

According to prosecution, Thamizh Selvi, 38, a widow from Gatevasal Street in Kallidaikurichi, was living alone since her son was studying at a college in Coimbatore. She was found murdered in her house on September 30, 2008. The murderers had strangulated her with a nylon rope after stuffing a towel in her mouth.

The assailants also stole gold ornaments worth ₹1.40 lakh from her house.

Kallidaikurichi police registered a case and a special team was formed to nab the culprits. The post-mortem revealed that the nurse had been sexually assaulted before being murdered.

A police team, led by the then Inspector of Police Ponnusamy, nabbed C. Vasanthakumar alias Ganesh, 32, his friends Rajesh alias Rajesh Kanna, 32, M. Karthik and Mahendran alias Rajendran, all from Kallidaikurichi, in connection with the case.

As the DNA samples collected from the dress of the victim matched with those of Vasanthakumar and Rajesh, the charges levelled against the duo were proved beyond reasonable doubt. However, Karthik and Mahendran were acquitted.

Mahila Court Judge Indrani, who termed the murder a heinous crime as the accused had robbed, raped and murdered the nurse, awarded death sentence to Vasanthakumar and Rajesh besides slapping a fine of ₹10,000 on them each.