A district court in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday posted the case of murder of 23-year-old Shabeer for orders on October 12. Five persons were accused of the murder that took place at Vakkom on the outskirts of the city in January last.
Principal Sessions Judge Haripal said he would pass the order on Thursday.
The court cancelled the bail of the accused, Satheesh, Santosh, Vinayak, Kirankumar and Nitin, and remanded them in judicial custody.
A suspect, Raju, committed suicide during the trial.
The police established local rivalry as the motive for the murder. The offence evoked widespread public revulsion after a raw video of the street-killing surfaced in the social media. A passerby captured the crime on his mobile phone and the police submitted the grainy and often wobbly video as smoking gun in court. They also named the phone owner as a witness.
To avenge attack
The prosecution case was that the accused waylaid Shabeer and a friend of his near a railway crossing on the evening of January 31, 2016, to avenge the attack on one of them.
The police told the court that both the victim and accused were disturbed men from dysfunctional families. They were college dropouts who did odd jobs for a living. All were deeply involved in the traditions and annual festivities of a neighbourhood temple that customarily accepted newly forged swords as an offering. Tradition required the youth to march around the temple with the swords in a warlike fashion.
The temple celebrated a martial tradition that leaned heavily on notions of gung-ho and male bonding. The prosecution detailed in court how temple ground disputes and petty rivalries culminated in Shabeer’s murder. It relied heavily on the statement of Shabeer’s friend who was seriously injured.
Circle Inspector G. B. Mukesh charged the case. The prosecution examined 43 witnesses in the case and submitted 74 documents, including forensic examination reports, as evidence.
