Man who killed sibling, minor girl gets death in Coimbatore

Coimbatore: The special court for the trial of cases registered under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act in the district on Wednesday awarded death sentence to a 30-year-old man for murdering his younger brother and a minor girl in a case of caste killing at Mettupalayam in 2019.
While delivering the verdict, judge K Vivekananthan sentenced the convict, Vinothkumar, of Vellipalayam Road, to death by hanging under two counts of Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). He was also sentenced to one-year imprisonment under Section 448 (house trespass) and fined Rs1,000.
The judge observed that the accused had committed criminal trespass to kill the victims. He noted that the murder fell under the rarest of rare category, as it was driven by caste hegemony, targeting the couple for living beyond caste distinctions.
The court acquitted three others - R Kanthavel, 26, S Iyappan, 36, and R Chinnaraj, 40, all residents of Mettupalayam - in the case.
According to court sources, Vinothkumar's younger brother, K Kanagaraj, 22, a daily wage labourer, was in love with C Varshinipriya, 16.
"While Kanagaraj belonged to the most backward community, Varshinipriya was a Scheduled Caste. Vinothkumar, also a daily wage labourer, refused to accept the relationship and urged Kanagaraj to end the same. The siblings often fought over the issue. However, Kanagaraj sought his father Karuppasamy's help to arrange the marriage. His father advised him to stay in a separate house for the time being, promising to arrange the marriage once the situation settled," the source said.
Kanagaraj rented a house in Sri Rangarayan Odai area on Vellipalayam Road in June 2019 and started living with Varshinipriya. "When Vinothkumar came to know about this on June 25, 2019, he discussed his plans to murder them with his friends Kanthavel, Iyappan and Chinnaraj, who promised all help. That evening, he went to Kanagaraj's house and attacked the couple with a sickle. Kanagaraj died on the spot, while the girl succumbed to her injuries two days later in hospital," the source said.
The Mettupalayam police registered a case against all four and arrested them.
During the final arguments on Wednesday, special public prosecutor Bhavani B Mohan described the case as the rarest of rare and argued that it was not just a murder, but an atrocity committed in the name of caste. He urged the court to impose a life sentence without remission, making it an example to deter such crimes.
The girl's mother, who witnessed the murder, demanded the maximum punishment for Vinothkumar, stating that he killed her daughter in front of her.
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