Dr. Subbiah murder case | Madras High Court sets aside death sentence imposed on seven, and life sentence imposed on two others

The Madras High Court on Friday, June 14, 2024, set aside the conviction and death sentence imposed by a trial court on seven individuals as well as the life sentence imposed on two others, in connection with the 2013 sensational murder of neurosurgeon S.D. Subbiah near Billroth Hospital in Raja Annamalaipuram in Chennai.

The Madras High Court on Friday, June 14, 2024, set aside the conviction and death sentence imposed by a trial court on seven individuals as well as the life sentence imposed on two others, in connection with the 2013 sensational murder of neurosurgeon S.D. Subbiah near Billroth Hospital in Raja Annamalaipuram in Chennai.

A Division Bench of Justices M.S. Ramesh and Sunder Mohan allowed the nine criminal appeals and acquitted the appellants P. Ponnusamy, his wife Mary Pushpam, their sons P. Basil and P. Boris and the others including B. William, H. Yesurajan, J. James Sathish Kumar, E. Murugan and S. Selva Prakash from all charges.

The Bench ordered that the appellants must be released forthwith from prison, unless their presence was required in connection with any other case. The fine amount, if any paid by them during the pendency of the criminal appeal proceedings, must be refunded to them.

The appeals had been preferred against the conviction and life sentence passed by a sessions court in Chennai on August 5, 2021, against Ms. Pushpam and Mr. Yesurajan and the death sentence imposed on all others for the charge of having murdered the neurosurgeon due to a property dispute.

According to the prosecution, the neurosurgeon was attacked by a three-member gang, when he was about to get into his car parked on the side of a road in R.A Puram in Chennai at around 5 pm on September 14, 2013. He suffered multiple injuries and succumbed on September 23, 2013.

After his death, the police altered the charges in the First Information Report (FIR) from Section 307 (attempt to murder) to Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code and arrested 10 persons. Of these, the 10th accused person, P. Iyappan turned into an approver, and was therefore pardoned.

The rest of the accused persons were put on trial on the basis of the evidence of a person who claimed to have witnessed the incident, when he had gone to R.A. Puram to pick up an old air-conditioner from a house nearby, but narrated the incident to the police only two days after the incident.