POCSO court hands double death sentence to Tamil Nadu man in teen rape-murder case

MADURAI: Just 75 days after a 17-year-old girl was raped and murdered in a remote village in Tuticorin district, a special court for Pocso Act cases awarded double death sentence to a 38-year-old man, relying heavily on clinching forensic evidence and CCTV camera footage from a windmill nearby.The girl, who ventured out to answer nature’s call, was waylaid by Dharmamuneeswaran, who raped and murdered her. Left clueless, police finally got a breakthrough when the suspect’s bike-borne image was captured in a CCTV camera installed at a windmill farm.Sessions judge M Breetha delivered the verdict on Monday. The trial, which began on May 5, concluded within eight weeks after all the 17 witnesses were examined. Police filed the chargesheet within 21 days.The windmill farm CCTV camera footage, DNA evidence and movements of a stolen two-wheeler emerged as the three factors that helped investigators secure conviction within weeks.The prosecution relied heavily on forensic evidence collected during the investigation. Samples collected from the shirt worn by the accused during the crime matched with the girl’s blood group, while semen samples collected from the victim’s private parts matched with the accused through DNA examination.“This was a blind case. We cracked it using scientific evidence and the DNA match became the clinching proof,” said inspector-general of police (south zone) Vijayendra S Bidari.Investigators also analysed nearly 1,000 hours of footage from CCTV cameras installed between Vedanatham village and Tuticorin town. Police said a standalone camera installed at the windmill farm near the crime scene provided the breakthrough in the case.The footage showed Dharmamuneeswaran entering the village around 2.30pm on March 10, nearly four hours before the crime, and leaving at 6.30am on March 11. Police identified him through a checked shirt seen in the footage and tracked his movements towards Tuticorin.The Kulathur police said the accused used his cellphone while entering the village before switching it off. The phone was switched on again around 7pm on March 11 in Tuticorin, around 45 minutes after he was captured leaving the village in the CCTV camera footage, helping the prosecution establish the timeline of the crime.Movements of a stolen two-wheeler used by the accused were also traced. Police said Dharmamuneeswaran, whose life sentence in a similar case had been suspended by a local court on Dec 18, stole the bike from Parthibanur in Ramanathapuram district the same night and altered the number plate from ‘5370’ to ‘6870’ to avoid detection.He regularly visited Vedanatham with friends in Feb and used the vehicle to survey entry and exit routes before committing the crime, said police. “Although the defence sought a reduction in sentence, the court considered the antecedent of the accused and awarded him a double death sentence,” said special public prosecutor V Ellammal Kissinger.