Jul 24 2016 : The Times of India (Chennai)
Man gloats over murder, gets life imprisonment
Chennai:
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
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Nine years after taxi driver John Thomas was abducted, murdered and buried in the middle of nowhere by a gang of five, which drove away the taxi, the Madras high court has confirmed life imprisonment to all the culprits. Interestingly, the case of John Thomas' sudden disappearance remained unravelled for more than five months till the main accused, himself a taxi driver, wrote to his former employer disclosing John Thomas' murder.John Thomas, a taxi driver with Jegan, operated out of a taxi stand near telegraph office in Pollachi. On July 18, 2007, on receiving a phone call from Anthonisamy , he told his wife that he was going out for a local trip. He did not return home since then.
As he could not be reached on his mobile as well, his wife searched and made inquiries for more than a week, before lodging a police complaint.Taxi owner Jegan also approached Pollachi east police, on July 25, 2007.
Despite wide publicity through local newspapers and television no breakthrough could be made in the case, till December 29, 2007 when Jegan received a letter from Anthonisamy , who was also former employee of Jegan. Anthonisamy had stated that he and four others had abducted John, killed him and buried him near Mullupadi Railway Gate, off Pollachi-Coimbatore main road. Police arrested Anthonisamy and his associates Muthumanickam, R Ganesh Kumar, Rahesh Kumar and S Kaleeswaran. After special court for bomb blast cases in Coimbatore convicted all the accused and sentenced them to undergo imprisonment of life, the present appeals were filed.
A division bench of Justice S Nagamuthu and Justice V Bharathidasan, confirming the sentence, said: “The quantum of punishment imposed by the trial court also cannot be stated to be disproportionate. The evidence of another taxi driver cannot be doubted.We believe from the evidence of him the prosecution has established that near the place of occurrence, where the dead body was buried, the accused were found moving together and they were in possession of the taxi belonging to the deceased. Prosecution has proved all the circumstances unerringly and un-mistakenly. Thus we do not find any merit in these appeals.“
As he could not be reached on his mobile as well, his wife searched and made inquiries for more than a week, before lodging a police complaint.Taxi owner Jegan also approached Pollachi east police, on July 25, 2007.
Despite wide publicity through local newspapers and television no breakthrough could be made in the case, till December 29, 2007 when Jegan received a letter from Anthonisamy , who was also former employee of Jegan. Anthonisamy had stated that he and four others had abducted John, killed him and buried him near Mullupadi Railway Gate, off Pollachi-Coimbatore main road. Police arrested Anthonisamy and his associates Muthumanickam, R Ganesh Kumar, Rahesh Kumar and S Kaleeswaran. After special court for bomb blast cases in Coimbatore convicted all the accused and sentenced them to undergo imprisonment of life, the present appeals were filed.
A division bench of Justice S Nagamuthu and Justice V Bharathidasan, confirming the sentence, said: “The quantum of punishment imposed by the trial court also cannot be stated to be disproportionate. The evidence of another taxi driver cannot be doubted.We believe from the evidence of him the prosecution has established that near the place of occurrence, where the dead body was buried, the accused were found moving together and they were in possession of the taxi belonging to the deceased. Prosecution has proved all the circumstances unerringly and un-mistakenly. Thus we do not find any merit in these appeals.“
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