Supreme Court confirms death sentences in Vidya murder case

The Supreme Court today (May 06) confirmed the death sentences imposed on four accused, including “Swiss Kumar”, in the 2015 abduction, gang rape and murder of 18-year-old schoolgirl Sivaloganathan Vidya in Jaffna.

The verdict was delivered by a five-member judge bench headed by Chief Justice Preethi Padman Surasena.

The court dismissed the appeals filed by the accused, who had sought to be acquitted and released from the death sentences imposed by the High Court Trial-at-Bar.

However, the Supreme Court ordered the acquittal of two other accused in the case.

At the time the order was delivered, three of the accused who had been sentenced to death were produced before the Supreme Court through Zoom technology.

The Attorney General had filed indictments against Mahalingam Sasikumar alias “Swiss Kumar” and several other defendants before a three-judge bench of the Jaffna High Court.

They were charged over the abduction, gang rape, and murder of Vidya while she was returning from school in the Punkuduthivu area on May 13, 2015.

On September 27, 2017, the Trial-at-Bar of the Jaffna High Court sentenced seven accused to death after finding them guilty in the case.

The appeals before the Supreme Court were filed against that sentence.

However, one of the accused had died during the hearing of the appeals.

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