MADURAI: Five years after a DMK -AIADMK rivalry during the 2021 assembly election campaign ended in an AIADMK supporter being doused with petrol and thrown into a burning van in Vilathikulam, a Tuticorin court has sentenced six DMK men to life imprisonment for his murder.




The prosecution said the dispute began on April 2, 2021, when DMK supporters, campaigning in Vilathikulam constituency where G V Markandeyan was their candidate, offered money to Jayabharathi, wife of AIADMK supporter Kalidass, to vote for the party. She refused, leading to an argument.




The following morning, Kalidass confronted Murugan, one of the accused, at his fruit shop in Pudur Bazaar. A quarrel followed, during which Kalidass’s relatives allegedly assaulted Murugan, prompting a separate police complaint. Around 7pm on April 3, the accused gathered outside Kalidass’s house at N Jegaveerapuram, damaged two vans and set them ablaze. When Kalidass intervened, they poured petrol on him and threw him into a burning van, as per the prosecution.




Kalidass suffered extensive burns and underwent treatment at several hospitals before dying of sepsis on June 8, 2021, 66 days after the attack.




On Monday, I additional district and sessions judge M Thandavan convicted Alagupandi, Marisamy, Sathishkumar, Pandishwaran and Manojkumar of murder and property damage and sentenced them to life imprisonment. Murugan also received life imprisonment for abetting the murder. Two other accused died during the proceedings.




The conviction came despite seven of the 25 prosecution witnesses, including Kalidass’s wife and injured brother, turning hostile. The court treated Kalidass’s original police complaint, recorded hours after the attack, as a dying declaration under Section 32 of the Indian Evidence Act. Medical evidence established that he was conscious when first admitted and that his death resulted from the burns.




The judge, however, found the alleged initial cash-for-votes confrontation unproved. The court also acquitted the five alleged direct participants of rioting with deadly weapons, causing grievous hurt and using obscene language, citing insufficient evidence.