The Lakshmikanthan murder case was a high-profile criminal trial that was conducted in the then

Madras Presidency The Madras Presidency, or the Presidency of Fort St. George, also known as Madras Province, was an administrative subdivision (presidency) of British India. At its greatest extent, the presidency included most of southern India, including the ...

between November 1944 and April 1947. The cause of the trial was the murder of C. N. Lakshmikanthan, a Tamil film journalist. Lakshmikanthan was stabbed in

Vepery Vepery is a suburb in the north of Chennai, India. Abutting the transportation hub of Park Town, the neighbourhood covers a rectangular area north of the Poonamallee High Road. History Vepery is among those oldest neighbourhoods developed duri ...

Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

, on 7 November 1944. He died the next morning in General Hospital, Madras. A criminal case was filed and a series of suspects were arrested. The suspects included Tamil film actors

M. K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar Mayavaram Krishnasamy Thiyagaraja Bhagavathar (1 March 1910 – 1 November 1959), also known by his initials as M. K. T., was an Indian actor, producer and Carnatic singer. He is considered to be one of the most successful actors in Tamil cine ...

and

N. S. Krishnan Nagercoil Sudalaimuthu Krishnan, popularly known as Kalaivanar () and also as NSK, was an Indian actor-comedian, theatre artist, playback singer and writer in the early stages of the Tamil film industry – in the 1940s and 1950s. He is conside ...

and director S. M. Sriramulu Naidu. While Naidu was acquitted, Bhagavathar and Krishnan were found guilty and convicted. Bhagavathar and Krishnan appealed to the

Madras High Court The Madras High Court is a High Court in India. It has appellate jurisdiction over the state of Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Puducherry. It is located in Chennai, and is the third oldest high court of India after the Calcutta High C ...

, but their appeals were turned down. The duo remained in jail until 1947, when an appeal to the

Judicial Committee of the Privy Council The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) is the highest court of appeal for the Crown Dependencies, the British Overseas Territories, some Commonwealth countries and a few institutions in the United Kingdom. Established on 14 Augus ...

was successful, and the Privy Council directed the sessions court to make a fresh retrial. They were found to be innocent and acquitted. The case remains unsolved as the real killers were never identified. The arrest completely broke Bhagavathar's morale. He lost all his money and died in 1959 in

penury Extreme poverty, deep poverty, abject poverty, absolute poverty, destitution, or penury, is the most severe type of poverty, defined by the United Nations (UN) as "a condition characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs, includ ...

. Krishnan went on to do a few films, only some of which were successful.

Background

The feud between the accused and Lakshmikanthan

C. N. Lakshmikanthan was an infamous film journalist in

. His foray into journalism began in 1943 when he launched a film weekly called ''Cinema Thoothu'' which was extremely successful, due to extensive columns devoted to the personal lives of some of the top actors and actresses of the day. Many actors and actresses responded by paying large amounts of money to "buy" his silence. As a result, Lakshmikanthan set up a prosperous vocation. Eventually, matters reached a standstill when Bhagavathar, Krishnan, and Naidu submitted a memorandum to the Governor of Madras, Arthur Oswald James Hope, requesting him to revoke the license for the magazine. Hope obliged and the license for the magazine was cancelled. Lakshmikanthan tried to run the magazine with forged documents but, after a few months, he was forced to close shop. Unfazed, Lakshmikanthan set up a new magazine called ''Hindu Nesan'' in which he continued his scandalous stories on Bhagavathar, Krishnan and a few other top actors, actresses and film people of the day. The tactics paid huge dividends and Lakshmikanthan purchased his own printing press.

Lakshmikanthan's background

Film historian and author

Randor Guy Madabhushi Rangadorai (born 8 November 1937), better known by his pen name Randor Guy, is an Indian lawyer, columnist and film and legal historian associated with the English language newspaper ''The Hindu''. He is also the official editor of the ...

writes that Lakshmikanthan had a dark past with a criminal record. As a young man, Lakshmikanthan desired to become a lawyer but could not afford it as his family was not well-off. However, with his sufficient knowledge of law, he managed to establish himself as a "

tout A tout is any person who solicits business or employment in a persistent and annoying manner (generally equivalent to a ''solicitor'' or '' barker'' in American English, or a ''spruiker'' in Australian English). An example would be a person who ...

". He was successful for some time but was eventually caught and convicted for forgery. He tried to escape but was captured and imprisoned on a seven-year term at

Rajahmundry Rajahmundry, officially known as Rajamahendravaram, is a city in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh and District headquarters of East Godavari district. It is the sixth most populated city in the state. During British rule, the District of Rajah ...

jail. He tried to escape once again, but was caught and deported to the

Andaman Islands The Andaman Islands () are an archipelago in the northeastern Indian Ocean about southwest off the coasts of Myanmar's Ayeyarwady Region. Together with the Nicobar Islands to their south, the Andamans serve as a maritime boundary between th ...

. Lakshmikanthan was eventually released when the islands came under Japanese occupation during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. He returned to India and established himself as a journalist.

The murder

In the morning of 8 November 1944, Lakshmikanthan paid a visit to his close friend and lawyer, J. Nargunam, who lived in Vepery, suburb in

. En route during return to his residence at the Venkatachala Mudali Street in

Purasawalkam Purasawakkam, also known as Purasaiwakkam or Purasai / Purasawalkam, is a residential shopping area in the district of Chennai in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. It is close to the Chennai Central and Chennai Egmore railway stations. Etymo ...

, another Madras suburb, by a hand-rickshaw at 10:00 (

IST Ist or IST may refer to: Information Science and Technology * Bachelor's or Master's degree in Information Science and Technology * Graduate School / Faculty of Information Science and Technology, Hokkaido University, Japan * Graduate School ...

) in General Collins Road, he was attacked by a group of unknown assailants — one of whom stabbed him with a knife. He reportedly suffered injuries in the left side of his abdomen among minor wounds on other parts of his body. The bleeding Lakshmikanthan managed to garner enough strength to walk to the lawyer's house, who listened to his description of the incident, and then sent him to General Hospital, Madras in the company of his friend, Brew. On the way, Lakshmikanthan requested the rickshaw-driver to stop at Vepery police station to file a complaint against the assailants. At about that time, Brew took leave of him. Profusely bleeding and unable to move, Lakshmikanthan dictated his description of the incident while sitting in the rickshaw while inspector Krishnan Nambiyar wrote it down on a piece of paper. At the General Hospital, Lakshmikanthan was admitted to the Wenlock Ward when bleeding in the abdomen did not cease. In the ward, Dr. P.R. Balakrishnan inspected his abdomen to check whether there was a serious wound. After this inspection, Lakshmikanthan's condition reportedly grew serious and he died at 4:15 a.m. (IST) on 9 November 1944 due to secondary shock caused by damage to the kidney. ''

The Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932. It is published in Mumbai by the Indian Express Group. In 1999, eight years after the group's founder Ramnath Goenka's death in 1991, the group was split betw ...

'' reported that he was "aged about fifty" during the time of his death.

Arrests

On the day of the attack, the police arrested one Vadivelu. Six suspects were arrested in the days following the murder. Among them were Bhagavathar, Krishnan and Naidu. They were tried for the murder. Bhagavathar and Krishnan were convicted while Naidu was acquitted. The Madras High Court sentenced the duo to

transportation for life Penal transportation or transportation was the relocation of convicted criminals, or other persons regarded as undesirable, to a distant place, often a colony, for a specified term; later, specifically established penal colonies became their d ...

. Krishnan and Bhagavathar appealed to the

. However, the appeal from the Privy Council did not come until the duo had already spent 30 months in jail.

Suspects

M. K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar

(1909-1959) was one of the biggest stars of early Tamil cinema. With his trademark long hair and his sweet voice, he set long-standing movie records. He was appreciated for his generosity and was perhaps the only film actor to be awarded a "

Rao Bahadur __NOTOC__ Rao may refer to: Geography * Rao, West Sumatra, one of the districts of West Sumatra, Indonesia * Råö, a locality in Kungsbacka Municipality, Halland County, Sweden Transport * Dr. Leite Lopes–Ribeirão Preto State Airport , IAT ...

" title (which he refused). At the time of his arrest, Bhagavathar was at the peak of his success. He had just completed shooting for '' Haridas'', which ran for three successful years at Sun Theatre in Broadway, Madras. He was the highest paid Tamil actor at the time and had been signed for as many as 12 films at the time of his arrest.

N. S. Krishnan

was a Tamil film comedian, drama artist, playback singer and writer in the early stages of the Tamil film industry. He is considered as the "Charlie Chaplin of India." He acted in nearly 150 Tamil films and the matinee-duo of Krishnan and T. A. Madhuram (later his wife) in Tamil films was very popular; he did roles along with leading stage and cine artists. He was also a talented singer. His jail term and fight for justice made him penurious; his wealth was lost in fighting the case.

References

External links

* {{Cite web, url=http://www.indiankanoon.org/doc/244689/, title=Transcript of the verdict in M.K. Thiagaraja Bhagavathar And Ors. vs on 29 October 1945, archiveurl=https://archive.today/20170625120518/https://indiankanoon.org/doc/244689/, archivedate=25 June 2017, url-status=dead 1944 murders in India Crime in Tamil Nadu History of Chennai Judicial Committee of the Privy Council cases Male murder victims Scandals in India Trials in India Unsolved murders in India