'Honour Killing Ugly Reality Of Caste Structure, Must Get Strong Punishment' : Supreme Court Upholds Convictions In Kannagi-Murugesan Case

The Supreme Court on Monday (April 28) confirmed the convictions in the 'Kannagi-Murugesan' honour killing case from Tamil Nadu.

A bench comprising Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Justice PK Mishra dismissed the appeals filed by nine convicts challenging the Madras High Court's 2022 judgment, which upheld their life sentence. The Court also dismissed the appeals filed by two policemen for fabricating evidence.

The case involved the brutal murder of an inter-caste couple S Murugesan and D Kannagi, who were poisoned by the latter's family members. Murugesan was a graduate in Chemical Engineering and belonged to the Dalit Community. Kannagi was a commerce graduate and belonged to the Vanniyar community. The couple were secretly married on May 5, 2003.

When Kannagi's family came to know of the marriage, they apprehended the couple on July 7, 2003, just as they were about to leave town and made the couple drink poison, which resulted in their death. Their bodies were later burned.

The murder of the couple was regarded as one of the first case of "Honour Killing" in the State of Tamil Nadu. The investigation of the case was handed over to the CBI after a botched police investigation.

In 2021, the trial court awarded death sentence to Marudupandian. Kannagi's brother, and sentenced 12 others, including her father, to life imprisonment. In 2022, the Madras High Court commuted the death sentence of Marudupandian to life sentence and confirmed the life sentence of nine others, including her father. Two persons were acquitted.

Today, the Supreme Court also directed the grant of  Rs 5 Lakhs compensation jointly to the father and step-mother of Murugesan. 

"At the root of this crime is the deeply entrenched hierarchical caste system in India, and ironically, this most dishonorable act goes by the name of honour-killing," the Court observed in the judgment.

"A crime is an act against the State. But a wicked and odious crime, as the one we have just dealt with, is the ugly reality of our deeply entrenched caste structure. Honour-killing, as these are called, must get a strong measure of punishment," the Court added.

Senior Advocates Siddharth Agarwal and Gopal Sankaranarayanan appeared for the appellants. ASG Vikramjit Banerjee appeared for the CBI.

Advocate Rahul Shyam Bhandari appeared for the parents of Murugesan.

Other reports about the judgment can be read here.

Case : KP Tamilmaran vs State SLP(Crl) No. 1522/2023 and connected cases.

Citation : 2025 LiveLaw (SC) 493

Click here to read the judgment