The Supreme Court on May 19, 2026, overturned a 2024 Madras High Court decision that had acquitted nine people charged with the 2013 murder of neurosurgeon S.D. Subbaiah near Billroth Hospital in Raja Annamalaipuram, Chennai.
A Bench led by Justices M.M. Sundresh and S.C. Sharma upheld the trial court’s conviction of the accused, including P. Ponnusamy, his wife Mary Pushpam, and their sons P. Basil and P. Boris. The trial court had sentenced seven of them to death in August 2021, while Ms. Pushpam and another accused received life imprisonment.
The State of Tamil Nadu, represented by lawyers Siddharth Luthra, MF Philip, and Purnima Krishna, had appealed to the Supreme Court against the High Court’s acquittal of all nine accused.
According to the prosecution, Dr. Subbaiah was attacked by a three-person gang as he prepared to leave his car near R.A Puram in Chennai on September 14, 2013. He died nine days later due to his injuries. After his death, police upgraded the initial charges from attempted murder (Section 307) to murder (Section 302) and arrested ten people, with one turning state witness.
The police alleged that Ponnusamy and his family had hired the gang to kill Dr. Subbaiah due to a property dispute.