Rape and murder of minor girl: Madras high court acquits former DMK MLA Rajkumar

CHENNAI: The Madras high court on Friday set aside the conviction of former DMK MLA M Rajkumar who was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment for rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl.
Justice N Sathish Kumar acquitted Rajkumar and his co- accused, K Jaishankar, of all the charges levelled against them and directed them to be set at liberty forthwith unless their custody is required in connection with any other case.
On December 28, 2018, the special court for MLAs and MPs convicted Rajkumar and Jaishankar for rape and murder and sentenced them to 10 years rigorous imprisonment with fines of Rs 30,000 and Rs 12,000 respectively.
The duo were charged with kidnapping, sexually assaulting and murdering the girl in 2012. She worked as a domestic help at Rajkumar’s house.
The CB-CID police registered the case and conducted investigations after it was transferred from the local police in Perambalur.
The special court had already acquitted other five suspects — Mahendran, Anbarasu, Panneerselvam (now dead), Vijayakumar and Harikrishnan.
The girl, daughter of a labourer couple from Kerala, joined Rajkumar’s household in June 2012 as a domestic help. She was brought by agents who promised her parents that she would be sent to school.
However, a few days after joining work, she called her parents and told them that she did not wish to continue. On June 29, 2012, her father was informed that his daughter was unwell and that she was admitted to a private hospital.
The girl’s parents rushed to Perambalur and shifted her to another hospital. She was moved to Government Medical College Hospital in Theni on July 4 where she died two days later.
After her parents took the body to Kerala, they found that she had been sexually assaulted. They filed a complaint with the police in Kerala who initiated a second postmortem there and intimated their counterparts in Perambalur.