Just before the sessions court in Tirunelveli was to pronounce the verdict in the famous ‘Nellai Conspiracy’ case against Communist leaders in 1952, there was speculation that at least two of the accused persons would get the death penalty and the others would get life imprisonment.
But the judge, while acquitting 51 accused persons, awarded life sentence and rigorous imprisonment to the Communist leaders, including R. Nallakannu, P. Manickam and Mayandi Bharathi. The defence lawyer was Nanguneri Thiruvenkatachari Vanamamalai, well-known as NTV, whose birth centenary fell on Thursday.
