High Court sets aside conviction of former DMK MLA

Chennai, : The Madras High Court on Friday set aside the conviction of former DMK MLA M Rajkumar, sentenced to 10 years Rigorous 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

“They are directed to be set at liberty forthwith unless their custody is required in connection with any other case, the judge said.

The special court for MLAs and MPs had on December 28 2018 convicted the duo for the rape and murder and sentenced them to 10 years RI with fines of Rs 30,000 and Rs 12,000 respectively.

They were charged with kidnapping, sexually assaulting and murdering the girl, a domestic help in Rajkumar’s house, in 2012.

The CB-CID police registered a case and conducted a probe after it was transferred from the local police in Perambalur.

The special court had already acquitted five other suspects one of whom has since died.The girl, daughter of a labourer couple from Kerala, joined Rajkumars 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 reportedly told them 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.