TIRUNELVELI: A Tirunelveli court on Tuesday awarded life imprisonment to five illegal sand miners for murdering a special branch police head constable S Jegadish Durai, 33, on May 6, 2018.Based on information of sand smuggling from the Nambiyar river and its tributaries, Durai, who was attached to the Vijayanarayanam police station near Nanguneri in Tirunelveli district went alone in his two-wheeler to intercept them. Spotting the tractor carrying sand on the Chittoor Road that connects Kovankulam and Parappadi villages he tried to stop them, but the accused entered a barren land. The policeman too followed them on his bike.When the accused tried to turn their vehicle one of the wheels of the trailer came off. The policeman then tried to catch hold of them, but they hit him on his head with metal weapons, leaving him dead on the spot. Repeated attempts by the police and family to reach him over phone went in vain and he was found dead the next morning.Special teams were formed to nab the accused and during the course of inquiry, a case was registered six people under various sections of the IPC. The trial came up before the IV additional district judge (IV-ADJ) Y Gladstone Blessed Tagore in the Tirunelveli court. On completion, the IV-ADJ convicted the accused and sentenced five of them to life imprisonment and acquitted one of them (third accused in the case) V Murugaperumal, 20.The judge awarded life imprisonment to Murugan, 25, and Krishnan, 50, three more years of imprisonment and slapped a fine of Rs 10,000 each. Manikumar, 24, and Raja Ravi, 25, were awarded life imprisonment, an additional two year imprisonment and a fine of Rs 1,000 each. One more accused Amitab Bachan, 25, was awarded life imprisonment.Police personnel welcomed the verdict saying the speedy conviction would instil fear in the minds of criminals.

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