The Madras High Court (HC) on Thursday upheld the conviction and life term of a former engineering student who brutally murdered his ex-girlfriend inside her college classroom in 2016. The court ruled that rejection in a relationship cannot be used as a warrant for violence, and expressed concern over what it termed an alarming rise in crimes committed by men unwilling to accept the end of a relationship. 

A division bench of the Madras HC comprising justices N Anand Venkatesh and KK Ramakrishnan dismissed the plea filed by Udayakumar, affirming the life term imposed by the trial court for the murder of Sonali, a third-year Civil Engineering student at Karur College of Engineering. 

“Girl not bound to continue relationship,” observes HC

While pronouncing the verdict, the court underlined the dangerous sense of entitlement that some men develop towards women during the course of their relationships. The bench remarked. “It has become a trend in recent times where a boy, who gets rejected in a relationship, thinks that a girl is bound to continue with the relationship.” 

According to the prosecution, Sonali and Udayakumar were in a relationship earlier. However, after Sonali chose to end it, Udayakumar allegedly failed to accept her decision. On August 30, 2016, he entered her classroom and attacked her with a wooden log in the presence of fellow students and faculty members. Sonali succumbed to her injuries later. 

The judges condemned the act, remarking that a young life filled with aspirations had been cut short due to the inability of the accused to handle rejection. 

Court slams witnesses who turned hostile

A notable aspect of the judgment was the court’s criticism of several student witnesses, who allegedly turned hostile during the trial despite having witnessed the attack. The bench noted, “With a heavy heart, this Court has to hold that students had let down the deceased by not supporting the case of the prosecution.” 

They also expressed concern that while many people voice outrage over crimes on social media, they often fail to support the justice process when called upon to do so. They said, “There is no use in merely expressing dissent and views on social media. It has to translate into action, or else the students will only become paper tigers in real life.” 

Life sentence upheld

Despite witnesses turning hostile, the court found that the testimony of an injured professor, who witnessed the attack, along with medical and corroborative evidence, firmly established the accused’s guilt beyond reasonable doubt. 

The bench noted that Udayakumar was familiar with the college premises and had deliberately entered the classroom where Sonali was present. It concluded that the murder was directly linked to his inability to accept the end of the relationship. 

Finding no flaw in the trial court’s appreciation of evidence or the sentence imposed, the HC junked the appeal and upheld the life imprisonment awarded to the convict, reiterating that rejection can never be an excuse for violence.