Representative image showing a police officer.
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Chennai: A local court in Kanchipuram on Thursday convicted 32-year-old Abirami and her lover 35-year-old Meenatchisundaram for poisoning the former’s children – a boy and a girl – and sentenced them to life imprisonment till death.
The murder of the two young children by Abirami – her husband Vijay escaped the attempt on his life – who thought the trio were coming in the way of her marriage to Meenatchisundaram in 2018 sent shockwaves across Tamil Nadu.
Pa U Chemmal, Principal District Judge of Kanchipuram, ordered that the couple spend the rest of their lives in jail by making it clear that he doesn’t want to impose the death penalty on them. The judge also dismissed pleas by Abirami and Meenatchisundaram to commute their sentence who argued that they have already spent seven years in prison.
“Life imprisonment alone is insufficient. They (Abirami and Meenatchisundaram) must remain in jail for the rest of their lives,” the judge wrote in his order before asking them to pay a fine of Rs 15,000 each.
He also punched holes in the police investigation in the case, including delayed production of the accused before the court.
The woman known as ‘Briyani’ Abirami on Instagram befriended Meenatchisundaram, who worked at a biryani outlet in Porur locality in Chennai, which later turned into an affair between them.
Abirami and Meenatchisundaram refused to call off their affair after their respective families came to know about their relationship. The man asked his lover to hatch a plan to finish off her family so that they can “live happily” in a different city following which Abirami laced milk with poison – while her daughter died instantly, she smothered her son to death using a pillow.
The murders came to light after her husband, a bank employee, found his children dead with foam around their mouths. He filed a complaint following which police arrested Meenatchisundaram and Abirami, who were preparing to leave for Nagercoil to travel to Kerala and start their new life.