The Enakulam Principal Sessions Court on Tuesday found Ameeerul Islam guilty in the murder of a Dalit law student in Perumbavoor. The court will pronounce the quantum of sentence on Wedneday.
Ameerul Islam
The court held Ameerul guilty of all charges, including rape and murder, except for destruction of evidence and violations under the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act. The charges proven against him included IPC Section 449 for trespass, 342 for wrongful confinement, 376 for rape and 302 for murder.
The victim was was found murdered at her single-room house on the side of Canal Bund Road at Vattolippady near Perumbavoor on April 28, 2016. The accused had mutilated the victim’s private parts besides murdering her. He left Perumbavoor a day after the murder and was arrested by the police at Kancheepuram in Tamil Nadu on June 16 last year.
The trial in the case was transferred to the Principal Sessions Court in Kochi from the Kuruppampady Judicial First Class Magistrate Court in July last year.
The court commenced the final hearing in the early last month with the completion of examination of the prosecution witnesses. To back the case, the prosecution presented 290 documents and 36 material evidences.
As many as 100 witnesses were examined during the trial that commenced in April last. The prosecution had described it as a rarest of rare case.
The victim’s mother had expressed the hope that justice will be delivered in the case. She demanded capital punishment for the accused.
Incident highlighted during Assembly polls
The incident was in focus during the Assembly polls last year with political parties attacking the then Congress-led UDF regime for ‘tardy’ progress in the probe and ’failure’ to nab culprits.
The LDF government, after assuming power on May 25 last year, changed the investigation team and entrusted the probe to ADGP B Sandhya in its first Cabinet meeting itself.
More than 100 police personnel had questioned over 1,500 people.
Finger-prints of over 5,000 people were also examined by the special investigation team personnel who went through over 20 lakh telephonic conversations before reaching Islam.
Police have said a blood stained footwear found from a canal near the victim’s house was one of the key evidences in identifying the culprit.
