The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Friday confirmed the death sentence awarded to a man by the trial court in Tirunelveli for the murder of a witness in an attempt-to-murder case in which the man was an accused.
The court was hearing the referred trial seeking confirmation of the judgment of conviction and death sentence awarded to R. Selvaraj by the Second Additional Sessions Court in Tirunelveli.
The court was also hearing the appeal filed by Selvaraj and his family members Antony Raj, Arul Philip Raj, Anto Nallaiah and Babu Alexander who were awarded life sentences and Jacqueline, Rajan and Selvaleela who were awarded two months of imprisonment.
The case of the prosecution was that there was political rivalry between the accused persons and R. Vaikundam since he tendered evidence against the accused persons in an attempt-to murder case. They threatened him not to depose against them. He did not heed to their threat and testified his examination in chief against the accused persons before the trial court. The case was posted for cross examination. Enraged, the accused persons murdered him in 2022 on the banks of a canal.
A Division Bench of Justices P. Velmurugan and L. Victoria Gowri observed that due to political rivalry there was enmity between both the groups. The crime was committed in order to prevent the witness from giving evidence against the accused persons on the day of cross examination.
The purpose for which the witness was brutally murdered that too on the date of hearing prior to going to the court for tendering evidence was shocking. If this situation was allowed to prevail no witnesses would come forward to give evidence out of fear, the court observed.
The court also observed that the appellants were notorious criminals involved in several cases and some of the accused were history-sheeters. Under such circumstances, the court finds that Section 195 A of IPC (threatening any person to give false evidence) will come into force.
Such a brutal act of murdering the witness to prevent him to appear in court and testify should be viewed as an attack against the justice dispensation system since it is only through witnesses the court can know the truth. Preventing witnesses from testifying before the court by murdering them is not an ordinary crime. It should be termed as the rarest of rare offence, the court observed.
The court observed that by murdering the witness, the appellants had instilled terror in the minds of the remaining witnesses. The Witness Protection Scheme was established in 2018. The main objective was to protect the witness. From a careful analysis of the aggravating and the mitigating circumstances, the court concluded that the case falls within the category of ‘the rarest of rare cases’ warranting imposition of death sentence on the main accused.
If such acts of the accused are not punished by giving major punishment of death sentence, in future, in every case, no one will come forward to stand as witness and the very objective and purpose of the Witness Protection Scheme 2018, will be defeated, the court observed while confirming the death sentence imposed by the trial court. The criminal appeals were dismissed.
Published – November 28, 2025 09:12 pm IST
