Trio, including lawyer, sentenced to life imprisonment in 2011 Coimbatore murder case

COIMBATORE: The Coimbatore Fifth Additional Sessions Court on Monday sentenced an advocate and his wife to double life imprisonment for murdering a 45-year-old woman. The judge awarded life imprisonment to a co-accused also.

Advocate ET Rajavel (44), wife Mohana (43), residents of Kurichi, were sentenced to double life terms while car driver P Palanisamy of Podanur received life imprisonment. It was the case of the prosecution that M Ammasai (45) from Sivananthacolony had gone missing in 2011. There was no headway in the missing case till 2013.

Meanwhile, when the Podanur police started an investigation into the missing case of realtor R Manivel (43) from Podanur in November 2013, they found the needle of suspicion pointing towards advocate Rajavel. Inquiries revealed that Manivel was murdered so that his 26.5-cent land at Nanjundapuram in Coimbatore could be grabbed.

During the course of the investigation, police cracked Ammasai's case as well. Ammasai was murdered by Rajavel and his accomplices in a bid to protect his wife Mohana from a multilevel marketing scam of Rs 12 crore in Odisha.

Ammasai had approached Rajavel to get a share of her estranged husband's property. On December 11, 2011, Ammasai was summoned by Rajavel to his office under the pretext of discussing the case. Rajavel then proceeded to strangle her to death with the help of his accomplices Ponnarasu and Palanisamy.

He then obtained a 'cause of death' certificate from a doctor stating that she had died of cardiac arrest. He then acquired her death certificate in his wife Mohana's name. After closing the multilevel marketing scam case in Odisha by using the forged death certificate, Rajavel filed a case in court to cancel Mohana's death certificate in order to register Manivel's 26.5 cents of land in Mohana's name.

After a detailed investigation, police arrested four persons -- Rajavel, Mohana, their accomplice Ponnarasu and Palanisamy -- in 2013. During the trial, accused Ponnarasu turned approver. Palanisamy was awarded a concurrent seven-year rigorous imprisonment.