New Delhi, April 29 -- The Supreme Court on Monday said it was ironic that the "most dishonourable" act of killing a couple in a hate crime goes by the name of "honour killing", as it confirmed the life sentence of nine people convicted for the 2003 murder of a Dalit man and a Vanniyar woman in a village in Tamil Nadu. A bench of justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and PK Mishra upheld the June 2022 verdict of the Madras high court and sentenced the accused, including two police officers, for the murders. The bench noted that the victims - Murugesan and Kannagi - who were in their early twenties were killed by administering poison in full view of a large number of villagers. "The masterminds and the main perpetrators of this macabre act were none other than the father and the brother of the girl Kannagi," it said. "A crime is an act against the state. But a wicked and odious crime, as the one we have just dealt with, is the ugly reality of our deeply entrenched caste structure," the top court said.. "Honour-killing, as these are called, must get a strong measure of punishment," the court said in its 73-page order. The apex court also directed the state to pay a compensation of Rs.5 lakh to Murugesan's father and stepmother or to the nearest of their kin. "At the root of this crime is the deeply entrenched hierarchical caste system in India, and ironically, this most dishonourable act goes by the name of honour-killing," the top court added....