Chennai Neurologist Murder case: HC directs 'A' class facilities in prison to accused doctor facing death penalty

Chennai: The Madras High Court in a recent judgement recommended the state government provide 'A' class facilities in the prison to Tirunelveli-based doctor J. James Sathish Kumar, who was arrested in the death case of neurosurgeon S.D. Subbiah.  

As per a media report in the Hindu, Dr Satish had received capital punishment by a trial court, which is now being heard by the Madras High Court, for the death of the neurosurgeon who was hacked to death by a gang outside a private hospital at Raja Annamalaipuram in Chennai on September 14, 2013. 

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However, the Division Bench of Justices P.N. Prakash and A.A. Nakkiran observed that they made this recommendation in consideration of his profession. The court agreed to the counsel R. John Sathyan of Dr Satish who had stated that there exists no provision under the Tamil Nadu Prison Rules of 1983 which would stand in the way of the court recommending 'A' class facilities to a convict by considering his education, social status and living standards. 

Further, the judges also took note of the judgement given by Sessions Judge S. Alli on August 4, 2021 where they had imposed a death sentence verdict on seven out of the nine convicts in the murder case. The sessions court judgement is now being referred to the Madras high court for confirmation under Section 366 of Code of Criminal Procedure, which states that no death sentence shall be executed unless it gets confirmed by the High Court. The referred trial is still pending adjudication along with appeals filed by the convicts. 

According to an earlier report in the Hindu, the deceased person, Dr Subbiah who was 58 years old, was repeatedly stabbed with deadly weapons by a hired gang when he came out of the hospital where he worked at Raja Annamalai Puram on September 14, 2013 in a reported case of the land dispute. He had subsequently succumbed to his severe injuries. The judgement came nearly eight years after the infamous killing took place, which was captured on a CCTV camera as well. 

The prosecution stated that Dr Subbiah, who had retired from government service in 2013 and had since been working in private hospitals, had lodged a land grabbing complaint against P. Ponnusamy of Anjugramam in Kanniyakumari district with respect to 2.25 acres of his land in the village. Following that, in retaliation, Ponnusamy, Ponnuswamy's spouse, P. Mary Pushpam and their sons P. Basil and P. Boris decided to kill Dr Subbiah in order to acquire the property.

The son, P. Basil also had the company of advocate friend B. William and his henchman H. Yesurajan, who then approached the present petitioner, Dr Satish based in Tirunelveli district and was also involved in the real estate and finance business. The main accused told the present petitioner that the market value of the property in dispute was around ₹10 crore, out of which they promised to give him 50% of the share if he managed to kill Dr Subbiah. 

The petitioner agreed to the deal, and hired his confidantes E. Murugan, S. Selva Prakash and P. Iyappan, all from Tirunelveli, to hack Dr Subbiah to death. They killed him while he was moving towards his car which was parked on a public road after attending work at a private hospital in Chennai. However, one of the accused, Iyappan turned an approver, following which he was pardoned and made a prosecution witness. 

Out of the nine accused who were put to trial the sessions court gave a verdict of life sentence to Mary Pushpam and Yesurajan, with the rest being sentenced to death, reports the Hindu. While giving the judgement, the trial court had written, "The offence in the present case has been committed in an extremely brutal, grotesque, diabolical, revolting and thus dastardly manner so as to arouse intense and extreme indignation of society. Not a trace of concern or comparison was shown for an aged, defenceless human being."

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