A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Friday sentenced a manager of a plywood company in Perumbavoor to life term for murdering the owner of the company and imposed a fine of ₹2 lakh on him. The prosecution case was that accused Rasheed, who was the manager of the plywood firm owned by Noushad, had rammed his car into the bike driven by the deceased, suspecting an illicit relationship between the owner and the wife of the accused . It took place on May 7, 2015 at 7.45 a.m., at Kayyanippadi in Rayamangalam panchayat. The accused had also stabbed Noushad after he fell down on the road. The Muvattupuzha Additional Sessions Court had acquitted the accused in 2019 on the ground that the prosecution had failed to establish the guilt of the accused, beyond reasonable doubt. Allowing the appeals by the government and the wife of the deceased, the Bench comprising Justice K. Vinod Chandran and Justice C. Jayachandran found that the overt acts were done with sufficient pre-meditation by the accused. The court also deprecated the conduct of the Sessions Judge in choosing to examine the knife used for stabbing, in the open court to ascertain whether there was any visible blood stain on it. The report of the Regional Chemical Laboratory was before the court. The judge wasn’t a forensic expert to detect blood stains, if any, on a knife, the court observed. The court also ordered that the fine be paid to the wife and children of the deceased as compensation.
