Not rarest of rare case, says judge ruling out death

On Wednesday, principal sessions judge G Jayachandran found Banu, her constable-friend G Karuna who had hired and assembled a five-member assailant gang -- T Suresh, R Karthik, R Dinesh Kumar, J Soloman and M Karthik to kill Vijayan -- and all the five hirelings guilty of murder and sentenced each of them to imprisonment for life. Brushing aside their protestations, and concurring with the submissions of special public prosecutor N Vijayaraj, the judge said the CB-CID's metro wing had proved the case beyond doubt.He, however, said the offence did not fall under the rarest of rare category so as to warrant death penalty for any of the seven accused.
A teary Banu waited inside the wooden box meant for the accused with the six others for well over two hours, received her copy of the verdict and boarded a heavily-escorted police vehicle that would take her to Central Prison for Women at Puzhal. A few metres away, sporting a guarded smile her sister Sudha, accompanied by his son, expressed satisfaction at the sentence, but noting that they must not be released from jail on bail anytime soon.
"Conspiracy is mostly hatched in secrecy and the role of each conspirator can be confirmed only from the circumstantial evidence," judge Jayachandran said in his order, adding that the proximity of Banu and Karuna was well spoken by witnesses. Relying heavily on the evidence tendered by a man, who was associate of the killers during the conspiracy stage but had pulled out later, the judge said the distribution of money from Karuna to others too had been spoken of. "There is no reason to doubt his evidence," the judge said, adding that from the evidence one could see that Karuna had organized and hired the other accused to kill Vijayan. "Karuna has no personal grudge or ill-feeling towards Vijayan, but his friend Banu had enough grudge. He has said to a prosecution witness that he wanted to kill Vijayan for his friend Banu, since Vijayan has been making Banu's life miserable."
Judge Jayachandran also pointed to the frequent telephone calls between Banu and Karuna, and said they would lead to the irresistible conclusion that Banu was the person who wanted Vijayan to be killed and she had conspired to do so along with Karuna. "Karuna has engaged the other accused to keep surveillance on Vijayan and to kill him at the earliest possible chance. Hence the charge of conspiracy against accused one to seven to kill VIjayan is proved beyond doubt," he said.
One more suspect in the case - Bhuvaneswari - who had originally introduced Karuna to Banu is absconding.