For a 10-year-old girl and her seven-year-old brother from a busy commercial area of Coimbatore, the morning of October 29, 2010, a Friday, broke with all promises of a joyous weekend.

As school time approached, the siblings were all set to board their regular school van. But things fell apart, in a matter of a few minutes, when they were picked up by a wrong van.

What unfolded the rest of the day were the darkest chapters of one of the most harrowing crimes in Tamil Nadu’s recent history.

Genesis of a crime

As plotted, Mohan alias Mohanakrishnan alias Mohanraj (27), a taxi driver who had an acquaintance with the siblings as a former school van driver, picked them up in a van he had hired from a friend. Mohanraj had no intention to offer the innocent siblings a ride to their school. Instead, he drove the van out of the city, where he joined his co-conspirator Manoharan (23) of Angalakurichi near Pollachi. According to investigators, the plan was to abduct the children to demand a steep ransom from the family.

Meanwhile, the news of missing siblings spread like a wildfire across Coimbatore, triggering the police to launch searches to trace the children and their abductors.

However, panic and fear of getting caught overrode the initial plans of Mohanaraj and Manoharan, and their plot took a horrific turn – they chose to eliminate the children. Before doing so, they subjected the ten-year-old girl to sexual assault while her brother was physically tortured. They drowned the children in a canal of the Parambikulam Aliyar Project (PAP).

The police recovered the girl’s body from the PAP canal at Vavipalayam near Pongalur on the same day and night. Her brother’s body was recovered from the PAP canal at Kedimedu near Pollachi the next day.

Arrest and encounter

Mohanraj was arrested on the same day of the gruesome crime while his accomplice was held two days later, for charges, including abduction, sexual assault, murder, and concealment of evidence.

The heinous crime against the two school children deeply shook the collective conscience of the public, triggering widespread anger over the state of law and order and the safety of children in Tamil Nadu. The public ire had reached the boiling point. Opposition parties blamed the then DMK government, with M. Karunanidhi at the helm as Chief Minister, for alleged failure in saving the children.

Amid widespread public demand for “instant justice”, the police were granted the custody of the two men by the jurisdictional court on November 8. The State, as many wanted, woke up to the “big news” the next morning – the first accused Mohanraj was gunned down by the police.

As per the police version, they were heading towards Pollachi with the two accused around 5:30 a.m. on November 9 to revisit the crime scene. Inspectors Kanagasabapathy and Annadurai escorted them with sub-inspectors S. Muthumalai and T. Jothi. As the police vehicle was passing through Vellalore – Podanur Road, Mohanraj snatched the pistol of Mr. Jothi and pressed it on the head of a Head Constable who was driving the vehicle. The driver refused to stop the vehicle, following which he opened fire inside the vehicle. While Mr. Jothi suffered an injury in his right arm, a bullet hit Mr. Muthumalai on his left loin.

In an act of “self-defence”, Muthumalai shot two rounds at Mohanraj, while Inspector Annadurai shot one bullet on the accused, killing him on the spot.

The then Coimbatore City Police Commissioner C. Sylendra Babu said the swift action by the police foiled the escape bid of a criminal.

Mr. Babu and his team were widely hailed by people who had been demanding “instant justice”, hailing him as “super cop”. But the police ‘encounter’ equally drew scrutiny from civil rights groups. The case regarding the encounter was transferred to the Crime Branch CID for an independent probe. Years later, the Madras High Court dismissed a plea seeking murder charges against the police officers, ruling that the shooting fell entirely under the right of private defence as protected by law.

Trial of lone surviving accused

Manoharan faced the trial in the Coimbatore Mahila Court. On October 29, 2012, marking exactly the second anniversary of the heinous crime, the Mahila Court Judge M.P. Subramanian found Manoharan guilty on all counts, including conspiracy, kidnapping for ransom, sexual assault, murder, and destruction of evidence. Holding it “rarest of rare” crime, the court awarded double death penalty and three concurrent life sentences to Manoharan on November 1, 2012.

The Supreme Court, on August 1, 2019, confirmed the death sentence of Manoharan, finding the case to be of the “rarest of rare category”.

“The incident took place before the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act came into force. The case was registered under Sections of the IPC. The police team could exhibit its best investigation skills in the case, which did not have any eyewitnesses for rape and the murders,” Mr. Muthumalai had told The Hindu, welcoming the apex court verdict.

Published – May 27, 2026 06:00 am IST

The situation faced by Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) now is no different from what the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), led by late Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, faced in 2006.

The TVK, which contested the recent Assembly polls on its own, secured 108 seats (with Mr. Vijay winning in two seats).

However, 20 years ago, the DMK, which faced the Assembly elections in alliance with the Indian National Congress, Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), and the Communist Party of India (Marxist), won only in 96 seats. However, the DMK formed the government with outside support from its allies, even though the Congress, which won 34 seats repeatedly, exerted pressure on the DMK to accommodate its MLAs in the government.

Karunanidhi remained firm in running it as a DMK government because he enjoyed the support of the PMK and the Left parties, whose combined strength was sufficient to cross the halfway mark. But J. Jayalalithaa, then general secretary of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and Leader of the Opposition, never missed an opportunity to mock it as a “minority DMK government”.

Also read | The last anchor: the legacy of M. Karunanidhi

It was late E. V. K. S. Elangovan, former TNCC president and Union Minister, who was particularly vocal about the need for a coalition government. Long before the 2006 Assembly elections, he had made his views on the issue public.

“Coalitions at the Centre and in many States have become the order of the day, and Tamil Nadu cannot remain an exception for long,” Mr. Elangovan had said when he served as Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry between 2004 and 2009. His argument was that the Dravidian parties could not come to power without the support of the Congress. His prediction eventually came true in 2006.

The argument advanced by Elangovan and other Congress leaders at the time was that the DMK could not deny the Congress a place in the State government while simultaneously enjoying the benefits of a coalition government at the Centre.

The last time Tamil Nadu witnessed a coalition government was in 1952. However, leaders of the Dravidian parties largely steered clear of the idea thereafter. In 1980, the DMK and the Congress arrived at an understanding to contest 50% of the seats each and form a coalition government if voted to power. But the coalition idea was buried deep after the alliance failed to capture power.

Even before the 2006 elections, Karunanidhi surprised both allies and adversaries by saying his party was prepared for coalition rule after the elections. After the results, he said the DMK alliance had received the mandate to form a coalition government. However, he subsequently changed his mind after the PMK, led by Dr. Ramadoss, with its 18 MLAs, offered a letter of unconditional support.

Karunanidhi, who later travelled to Delhi to meet Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, ruled out a coalition government and said the pre-election arrangement — under which the Congress would support the DMK from outside — would continue.

Also read | Karunanidhi and the shaping of the Dravidian movement

His argument was that the DMK was extending unconditional support to the Congress government in Puducherry, and that the Congress, in a similar manner, would support the DMK government in Tamil Nadu.

A senior Congress leader, who was among the party’s MLAs in 2006, said the DMK leadership had succeeded in convincing Ms. Gandhi about the “difficulties in running a coalition government in a State like Tamil Nadu.”

“Karunanidhi and Arcot N. Veerasami (then Minister) told me and another senior MLA to prepare a list of candidates to be accommodated in the coalition government. Mr. Veeraswami even told me that seven chambers were ready for Congress ministers. But it never happened because of the lack of unity among Congress leaders in Tamil Nadu,” the Congress leader recalled.

Congress MLAs, however, continued to raise their voice in favour of a coalition government. Speaking during the motion of thanks to the Governor’s Address, Congress member C. Gnanasekaran, a well-known face in the party, said the coalition model had proved successful at the Centre.

“The coalition form of governance has been catching up in States such as Maharashtra and Kerala. Mr. Karunanidhi should come forward to implement the coalition strategy in Tamil Nadu as well,” he said.

Karunanidhi somehow survived the pressure, partly because of the support extended

by the PMK and partly because of the lack of unity among Congress leaders in Tamil Nadu, as well as the absence of strong backing from the party high command.

But Mr. Vijay may not be able to avoid a coalition government, as the Congress, which was among the first parties to extend support to him, is keen on joining the government. The Congress legislators are expected to be inducted when the Cabinet is expanded, ushering in a new phase in Tamil Nadu politics.

Published – May 20, 2026 06:00 am IST