An icon’s house: Ramavaram Gardens where Vijayan, inset, stayed with M.G. Ramachandran and his wife Janaki Ramachandran.
| Photo Credit: Special arrangement
Vijayan alias Vijayakumar was a former naval officer. He had also served as a personal secretary to V.N. Janaki, M.G. Ramachandran’s wife, when she was the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu immediately after the death of her husband. He had edited a Tamil monthly, Mannathi Mannan, from his office on Bimanna Mudali Street at Alwarpet. And Vijayan was the husband of Sudha, one of the foster daughters of the late Chief Minister, M.G. Ramachandran.
Vijayan was living with wife and his son at Ramavaram Gardens. He would commute to his office around 11.00 a.m. daily and return home in the evening. On June 4, 2008, he went to work as usual. As the computer printer at his office developed a snag, he called up mechanic Senthilkumar around 3.30 p.m. to repair it. After the printer was repaired, Mr. Vijayan told Senthilkumar that he would drop him at Guindy while going home.
War of words
Vijayan and Senthilkumar left Alwarpet at 8 p.m. Vijayan was behind the wheel and the mechanic was sitting to his left. When the car neared the bridge across the Adyar at Kotturpuram, where there was a speed hump on the Turn Bulls Extension Road, another car from behind hit Vijayan’s. But Vijayan continued driving. Soon, a white car came from behind, tried to overtake Vijayan, and crashed into his car. Vijayan got down and was engaged in a war of words with the person in the other car. Two other persons came on a motorcycle and two others came in yet another car. One of them attacked Vijayan with an iron pipe on the head. Then the five persons escaped in their vehicles.
When the assailants started attacking Vijayan, Senthilkumar ran away. He rushed back to the place a few minutes later and found Vijayan lying with injuries. He informed the son of Vijayan on the mobile phone. Before his son could reach the spot, Senthilkumar and the locals took Vijayan to Apollo Hospitals. After Vijayan was declared dead, Senthilkumar lodged a complaint with the police. A case was registered at 10.15 p.m. under Sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting with armed weapons), and 302 (murder), read with Section 120(b) (criminal conspiracy), of the Indian Penal Code.
Transferred to CB-CID
Subsequently, the Director-General of Police transferred the case to the CB-CID, of which Metro Wing took up the probe. Special Public Prosecutor N. Vijayaraj, who conducted the trial, said that during the investigation, the police inquired with many witnesses and seized several documents and material objects. Seven accused persons were arrested, and one accused, Bhuvana alias Bhuvaneswari, was absconding.
The police arrested Banu Sridharan, former principal of a private school who had enmity towards Vijayan, husband of her sister Sudha; G. Karuna, a police constable, who had allegedly hired the assailants and was hiding near her school at Vadapalani; T. Suresh, a car electrician; R. Karthick, a cousin of Suresh; Deena alias Dinish Kumar; and his associates J. Soloman, and M. Karthik.
Mr. Vijayaraj said it was the case of the prosecution that the first accused Banu engaged others for killing Vijayan. Karuna was a friend of Banu and the others were the hired killers. It was also the case of the prosecution that the seven accused persons conspired to kill Vijayan and in pursuance of the conspiracy, the third accused followed Vijayan in a car and crashed it into Vijayan’s, and forced him to get down. Then, one of the accused persons attacked him on the head with the iron pipe.
M.G. Ramachandran was the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister until his death in December 1987. After he passed away, his wife Janaki was leading the AIADMK founded by MGR. Janaki had a brother named Mani alias Narayanan. Narayanan had seven children. His three daughters were living in the house of MGR and Janaki at Ramavaram Gardens. Ramachandran alias Raja alias Deepan, Banu, and Manu, another daughter of Narayanan, were all living in Narayanan’s house in Lake Area at Nungambakkam.
Vijayan married Sudha in 1980. After the demise of MGR, Vijayan became the personal assistant to Janaki. Sudha was running a primary school near Ramavaram Gardens and Vijayan was looking after it.
Dispute reaches court
The property dispute among the legal heirs of Narayanan went to court. In his lifetime, Narayanan had appointed Ramachandran as the sole trustee of all these schools. Vijayan had been aiding Raja and helped him arrange advocates to fight cases, leading to enmity with Banu, said the prosecution.
In 2016, Principal Sessions judge G. Jayachandran found Banu, Karuna, and five others guilty of murder and sentenced them to life imprisonment. Subsequently, the convicts filed an appeal in the Madras High Court, and the State government moved the court for enhanced punishment.
Appeal in Supreme Court
In 2017, a Division Bench of the High Court acquitted Banu, holding that her alleged participation in the conspiracy had not been proved beyond doubt. It also acquitted M. Karthik (the accused number 7) as the only evidence available against him was that he had lent his car to Karuna and there was no evidence to show that he had known that the car would be used for Vijayan’s murder. It confirmed the life imprisonment awarded to the five other convicts. However, the government and the other convicts appealed against the High Court order in the Supreme Court.
Published – February 09, 2025 11:00 pm IST