The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Monday sentenced a retired police official to four-year jail in the 2007 attack on the office of Tamil news daily Dinakaran that left three people dead. The court awarded four years imprisonment to retired Deputy Superintendent of Police Rajaram in 2007 Dinakaran newspaper office attack case.
A division bench comprising Justices P N Prakash and B Pugalendhi sentenced the DSP to one year rigorous imprisonment under 217 (Public servant disobeying direction of law with intent to save person from punishment) of the Indian Penal Code and four years imprisonment under section 221 (1) (Punishment for intentional omission to apprehend on the part of public servant bound to apprehend) of IPC. The sentences will run concurrently, they said.
The former DSP who appeared before the court on Monday urged the judges to hear him in the chambers. Three Dinakaran staff members — Vinoth Kumar, Gopinath and Muthuramalingam -— were killed in the incident.The case was later taken over by the CBI, which booked 17 people, including Rajaram, for facilitating the attack. The high court also ordered the state government to pay Rs 5,00,000 compensation to the families of Gopinath, Vinod and Muthuramalingan -- the three Dinakaran staffers who were killed in the attack.
Among those sentenced to life is V.P. Pandi, also known as 'Attack Pandi', a supporter of former Union Minister M K Alagiri, who was expelled from the DMK some years back.
