HC upholds life sentence on man in classroom murder of girl student

Madurai: Upholding the conviction and life sentence imposed by a trial court on a man who murdered an engineering college girl student in the classroom in Karur district in 2016, Madras high court expressed disappointment over the fact that the fellow students who were witnesses turned hostile during the trial.A division bench of justice N Anand Venkatesh and justice K K Ramakrishnan observed, “With a heavy heart, the court has to hold that the students had let down the deceased by not supporting the case of the prosecution and thus they failed in their duty to uphold truth. This is the type of attitude that was exhibited by the so-called educated students, who were doing an engineering course. The education did not really build up a character to the students and rather each of the students, who turned hostile, exhibited pusillanimity.

”The case of the prosecution is that the deceased Sonali was close to accused person Udhayakumar for sometime and later, she abstained herself from the relationship. Sonali was studying in an engineering college in Karur. Udhayakumar also used to study in the same college and in the same branch as Sonali. Due to lack of attendance, he was debarred from writing the exams. He discontinued his studies.On August 30, 2016, Udhayakumar trespassed into the classroom and assaulted Sonali on her head indiscriminately with a wooden log.

She sustained grievous injuries and later succumbed to the injuries in the hospital. The Karur Town police subsequently arrested Udhayakumar. In 2022, the mahila court in Karur convicted and sentenced Udhayakumar to undergo life imprisonment. Challenging the same, Udhayakumar had preferred the present criminal appeal..The court has to express its disappointment on the attitude of the students, who were examined as eyewitnesses and who had chosen to become hostile witnesses.

In the first place, no attempt was made by any student to prevent the accused person from carrying out the attack. Even after the incident, no attempt was made by the students to overpower the accused person. Even if the students were not forthcoming to act in this manner, the minimum they should have done is to have spoken before the court, the judges observed.“The student community must understand that it is only a matter of time that a similar incident may happen to any student in a college in such a gruesome fashion.

There is no use in merely expressing dissent and expressing views in social media and it has to translate itself into action or else the students will only become paper tigers in real life,” a division bench of justice N Anand Venkatesh and justice K K Ramakrishnan observed.The motive in this case is the broken relationship between the deceased and the accused and the disgruntled accused person barged into the college and attacked the deceased. This perfectly falls in line with the case projected by the prosecution and there is absolutely no reason to doubt this version given by the prosecution, the judges observed and dismissed the appeal preferred by Udhayakumar.