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The District Principal and Sessions Court in Karur on Monday, June 1, sentenced three men, including a stone quarry owner, to double life imprisonment, for the 2022 murder of activist and farmer R Jaganathan, who had campaigned against illegal stone quarrying in the district.
The court convicted S Selvakumar (43), owner of the quarry, truck driver K Sakthivel (28), and quarry worker P Ranjithkumar (50) for the murder and also imposed a fine of Rs 2 lakh on each of the three convicts.
Jaganathan, a resident of Kalipalayam in Pugalur taluk, had repeatedly petitioned authorities seeking action against stone quarries that he alleged were operating illegally and affecting agricultural activities in the area.
According to the prosecution, one of the quarries he had opposed belonged to Selvakumar and was located near Jaganathan’s farmland.
Officials from the Department of Geology and Mining shut down the quarry on September 9, 2022, following complaints that it was functioning without the required permissions.
A day later, on September 10, Jaganathan was travelling on a two-wheeler from Kuppam towards Karudayampalayam when a truck driven by Sakthivel rammed into his vehicle and ran over him, killing him on the spot.
Based on a complaint lodged by his wife Revathy, the K Paramathi police registered a case of murder and arrested Selvakumar, Sakthivel and Ranjithkumar.
The case also brought attention to an earlier attack on Jaganathan in 2019. In a complaint filed at the time, he accused Selvakumar of assaulting him following disputes over the quarry’s operations.
Jaganathan had alleged that dust and smoke from Selvakumar’s crusher unit were affecting his agricultural land and that his repeated attempts to seek redress had led to abuse from the quarry owner.
According to the complaint, Jaganathan was attacked with a sickle and threatened with death after questioning the blocking of an access path near his fields. He sustained grievous injuries in the assault and was treated at a hospital in Karur.
Following Monday's verdict, the three convicts were lodged in the Central Prison in Trichy.