A district court here on Wednesday sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for life four persons found guilty of the gangland murder of Aprani Krishnakumar in 2007.
First Additional Sessions Judge K.P. Indira slapped a double life term on the prime suspect Suresh alias “Karate” Suresh, 40. His associates ‘Peeli’ Shibu, Amir and 3D Arun received life sentences.
The court also slapped a fine of not less than Rs.2 lakh on all of the accused. The same judge had sentenced the first set of suspects in the case to life imprisonment in 2013. They included former model, fledgling actor, and self-styled social activist Om Prakash and an affluent and politically influential public works contractor Prasanth.
The prosecution case was that Prasanth had contracted the suspects, all of them prominent underworld figures, to kill Krishnakumar to protect his business interests.
In 2007, Prasanth bagged a government contract to dredge silted up canals in the city. He planned to enhance his profits by selling the mud to realtors who reclaimed wetlands for construction near the Technopark campus at Kazhakoottam. Matters came to a head when Krishnakumar, a gang leader, demanded protection money from Prasanth.
At 11.30 a.m. on February 20, 2007, the suspects ambushed Krishnakumar’s car with a well-aimed crude bomb. They chased him along a stretch of marshy land that abutted the National Highway at Chakka and hacked him to death.
The crime had all the elements of a typical hit-and-run mafia operation.
Assistant Commissioner R. Mahesh and Sub Inspector C. Mohanan relied on circumstantial and digital evidence to identify the accused. The Judge commended the officers for their diligent and painstaking investigation.
She said the accused in the case had ‘money and muscle.’ During trial, persons suspected to be on the payroll of the accused had threatened several witnesses, kidnapped one of them, and attempted to murder another. Special Prosecutor Sajan Prasad prosecuted the case.
The case is relates to the killing of Aprani Krishnakumar in 2007 in a typical hit-and-run mafia operation.
