'Court ignored settled law in awarding death to accused in Dr Subbaiah murder'

THE Madras HC has held that the trial court, which had awarded death penalty to seven and life imprisonment to two accused, in the murder of renowned neurosurgeon Dr SD Subbaiah, had adopted a callous approach in failing to appreciate evidence and disregarded well-settled legal propositions while awarding the maximum punishment.

- R SIVAKUMAR

The division bench of justices MS Ramesh and Sunder Mohan, which pronounced the verdict on June 14, acquitting all the convicts in the sensational murder case, said, "the corroboration offered by the prosecution is totally unreliable so as to record a conviction of guilt of the accused."

The bench pointed out to the strange manner in which the witnesses brought in by the prosecution had overheard the minute details of the conspiracy meetings and kept it to themselves for a long time, but suddenly appeared before the investigating officer later. It said all such matters made the court conclude that the conviction by the lower court cannot be upheld although there was grave suspicion against some of the accused.