HC confirms double life imprisonment for woman's murder

The Madras High Court today confirmed a lower court's verdict convicting and imposing double life sentences each on two persons for abduction and murder of a 35-year-old woman in 2008.
The lower court was right in depending on extra-judicial confession to confirm their conviction. Conviction can very well be based upon extra-judicial confession if it is supported by strong circumstances, Justices A Selvam and T Mathivanan of Madurai bench said.
The court dismissed the appeal of Arumugam and Sakthivel from Pudukottai district and upheld the order of the local Mahila Court, sentencing the duo to life imprisonment under IPC Sections 364 (abducting for murder) and 302 (murder).

The judges noted that police, depending on circumstantial evidence, had established a chain of events to prove the guilt of the duo.
The prosecution case was that the two had abducted the woman in 2008 on a false promise that they would get her married to a handsome man and had murdered her after stealing her jewellery.
Soon after the murder, Arumugam had surrendered before a Village Administrative Officer and confessed to committing the crime with his accomplice.
The judges in their order said "that extra-judicial confession was also an important circumstance and that other incriminating circumstances have to be militated against the confession".

"In this case, the confession cannot be simply thrown aside because it appeared to be voluntary in nature and supported by the prosecution evidence," they said.