Dr Subbiah murder case: Court gives death penalty to 7, life imprisonment to 2

On September 14, 2013, the 58-year-old doctor was killed in full public view while he was walking out of Chennai’s Billroth Hospital towards his parked car after work in the evening. A land dispute with his family over a 2.4-acre plot in Kanyakumari district led to the crime

A sessions court in Chennai on Wednesday imposed the death penalty on seven of the 10 accused in the murder of neurologist Dr S D Subbiah. These include two lawyers.

Representational Image. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

City trial court judge I S Alli also sentenced two others to life imprisonment and one accused who turned approver was released without punishment.

On September 14, 2013, the 58-year-old doctor was killed in full public view while he was walking out of Chennai’s Billroth Hospital towards his parked car after work in the evening. A land dispute with his family over a 2.4-acre plot in the doctor’s native Anjugramam village in Tamil Nadu’s Kanyakumari district led to the crime.

Three people wielding machetes attacked the doctor on his head, neck and he suffered more than 20 cuts across his body. Many people witnessed the attack and CCTV from a nearby apartment also captured it. Dr Subbiah succumbed to his injuries nine days later.

The sessions judge sentenced Ponnusamy, Basil, Boris, B William, James Satish Kumar, Murugan and Selva Prakash to double capital punishment for offences under Sections 302 (murder) and 120B (party to a criminal conspiracy to commit an offence punishable with death) of IPC. The other two accused, Mary Pushpam and Yesurajan, have been sentenced to double life terms.

One of the convicts, William, is an advocate whose bail petition was rejected by the Supreme Court in May 2018. Prosecutor Vijayaraj had at that time submitted a petition in court to declare Williams as proclaimed offender as he had been absconding with his family members. Williams surrendered in August that year and was remanded to judicial custody.

Another accused, P Iyyapan, who turned approver in 2018 and became a prosecution witness during the trial, was allowed to walk free without any punishment. Iyyapan had confessed that he, along with Murugan and Selvaprakash, had killed the doctor.

After the sentencing, the murdered doctor’s wife, Shanthi Subbiah, flanked by her daughters said, “This is an emotional and private moment for us...In those nine days, he was semi-conscious, I’m sure he would have only thought about me and his two daughters. We are not going to get him back, but today’s verdict is some consolation. My husband believed in the judiciary and so did we. Today’s verdict shows that our trust in the judiciary hasn’t gone in vain. It’s a little late but never too late to get justice.”