Justice served to Ranjith Sreenivasan! Kerala court issues death sentence to 15 PFI terrorists
30 Jan 2024 13:04:13
While delivering justice to BJP Kerala State leader Ranjith Sreenivasan who was hacked to death on December 19, 2021, by the terrorist of the Banned Islamic radical group, Popular Front of India, the court in its historic verdict issued a death sentence to all 15 PFI terrorist involved in the murder.
The court handed down this severe penalty to all 15 SDPI (Social Democratic Party of India) - PFI (Popular Front of India) workers besides a fine and rigorous imprisonment as part of the sentencing. The verdict was delivered by Additional District Session Court-I Judge Sreedevi V.
Names of 15 convicted
The 15 convicted are Naisam, Ajmal, Anoop, Mohammed Aslam, Abdul Kalam alias Salam, Saffaruddin, Manshad, Jaseeb Raja, Navas, Sameer, Nazir, Abdul Kalam, Zakir Hussain, Shaji and Shernas Ashraf. Of the 15 convicted for Ranjith’s murder, eight had been directly involved in the execution of the murder, investigators found.
What is the court's judgement?
The prosecution had sought the maximum sentence for the convicts, stating that they were a "trained killer squad" and that the cruel and diabolical manner in which the victim was killed in front of his mother, infant, and wife brought it within the ambit of the "rarest of the rarest" of crimes.
The prosecution had found that SDPI-PFI members had prepared a hit list in which Ranjith, a lawyer, had figured on top. The hit list was found in the mobile phone seized from the third accused Anoop.
On January 20, the court found that the first 12 accused were directly involved in the murder, and accused 13 to 15 assisted them.
The first eight accused, who were directly involved in the heinous act were found guilty under Sections 302 (murder), 149 (unlawful assembly), 449 (house trespass to commit an offence punishable with death), 506 (criminal intimidation), and 341 (wrongful restraint) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).The other set of accused, who stood guard outside the BJP’s leader’s house with deadly weapons when the assailants committed the crime, was convicted under Sections 302 r/w 149 and 447 (criminal trespass) of the IPC. However, the key conspirators, Zakir, Shaji and Shernas were found guilty of criminal conspiracy and murder under IPC Sections 120 B and 302, respectively.
Who was Sreenivasan's
He was a member of the BJP Kerala committee and OBC Morcha (State) Secretary. Ranjith had contested as a BJP candidate from the Alappuzha constituency in 2016. The BJP leader was an advocate by occupation.
Sreenivasan was attacked and killed in his home, in front of his family, allegedly by activists affiliated with PFI and the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI). On December 19, 2021, the group of Islamic radicals broke into his house in the wee hours of Sunday and hacked Ranjith to death. The incident occurred at Ellapully in Palakkad district at 9:30 in the morning.
The incident happened hours after a state-level leader of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) leader was killed in the same district. SDPI is the political arm of Islamist outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) which is banned in several parts of India.
Local reports suggest that the assailants, who came in a car, stopped his bike and attacked him in broad daylight in front of many people including his wife. Sanjith was then rushed to the hospital where he later succumbed to his injuries.
Ranjith’s wife Lisha expressed satisfaction
Ranjith’s wife Lisha expressed satisfaction over the verdict. “This cannot be seen as a murder. It is the rarest of rare cases. My husband was brutally attacked in front of us,” she said.