The Ernakulam Principal Sessions Court on Tuesday found Ameerul Islam, a migrant worker from Assam, guilty of raping and murdering a Dalit law student near Perumbavoor last year.
Special Judge N. Anilkumar found the accused guilty of offences, including Rape (Section 376 IPC), Murder (Section 302 IPC), causing death or resulting in persistent vegetative state of victim (Section 376 A), wrongful confinement (Section 342 IPC) and house trespass (Section 449 IPC).
However, the court observed that the prosecution failed in proving the charges under the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989 as the accused had no requisite knowledge about the caste identity of the survivor. In the absence of concrete evidence against him, the court also found him not guilty of destruction of evidence under Section 201 of the IPC.
The court is likely to pronounce the quantum of sentence on Wednesday after hearing the accused.
The case pertains to brutal rape and murder of the Dalit woman at her house in Vattolipadi, near Perumbavoor, on April 28, 2016. The 30-year-old woman was found dead in her two-room asbestos house by the side of a canal when her mother returned from work around 8.30 pm.
The court accepted the prosecution’s argument that the Ameerul Islam, a migrant labourer, forcefully entered the house and committed the rape and murder between 5.30 p.m. and 6 p.m. The judge also noted that during the trial, the accused had not offered any reasonable explanation warranting his presence at the crime scene.
“The deceased was resisting the act (rape), tooth and nail, but succumbed to the injuries which included those sustained to her genitalia,” the judgment stated.
While the defence counsel attempted establishing that the murder had been actually committed by Anarul Islam and Hardat Barua, the court rejected the claims and observed that there were no such characters. Further, the court pointed out the post-mortem finding that the body attained ‘rigor mortis on the fateful night itself’, which showed the crime was committed only one or two hours earlier.
The trial in the case was transferred to the Principal Sessions Court here from the Kuruppampady Judicial First Class Magistrate Court in July last year. The trail in the Principal Sessions Court here began in April this year, when the prosecution examined 100 witnesses, including 15 migrant labourers. To back the case, it had also presented 290 documents and 36 material evidences.
