The Mavelikara Additional District Session Court-I on January 20 convicted 15 accused in connection with the murder of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Ranjith Sreenivas.
Judge Sreedevi V.G. found Naisam, Ajmal, Anoop, Mohammed Aslam, Abdul Kalam alias Salam, Abdul Kalam, Saffaruddin, Manshad, Jaseeb Raja, Navas, Sameer, Nazir, Zakir Hussain, Shaji Poovathungal and Shernas Ashraf guilty of the crime. The convicts, hailing from different parts of Alappuzha, belong to the now proscribed Popular Front of India (PFI) and its political arm Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI). The first eight accused, who took part in the killing, were found guilty under Sections 302 (murder), 149 (unlawful assembly), 449 (house-trespass to commit offence punishable with death), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 341 (wrongful restraint) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The accused nine to 12 who stood guard outside the BJP’s leader’s house with deadly weapons when the assailants committed the crime were convicted under Sections 302 and 447 (criminal trespass) of the IPC. Zakir (13th accused), Shaji (14th accused) and Shernas (15th accused), the key conspirators in the case, were found guilty under Sections 120 (criminal conspiracy) and 302 of IPC. The quantum of punishment will be pronounced later.
The prosecution case was that Sreenivas, who was the State secretary of the BJP’s OBC Morcha and a lawyer, was hacked to death most brutally by the accused at his house at Vellakinar in Alappuzha municipality on the morning of December 19, 2021. He was murdered in front of his mother and wife.
According to officials, the killing of Sreenivas was a retaliatory strike to avenge the murder of SDPI’s State secretary K.S. Shan at Kuppezham Junction at Mannancherry, Alappuzha, allegedly by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) activists the night before. The trigger for the murder of Shan was the killing of RSS worker Nandukrishna by SDPI men at Vayalar in Alappuzha on February 24, 2021.
The high-profile ‘communally tinged political killings’ had led to fears of a possible communal flare-up in Kerala. Observers saw the murders attempts from two religiously opposed fanatical forces to instigate a communal conflagration in the State. Back then, the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Democratic Front government in the State came under fire for its failure to rein in religious fundamentalist outfits and its “appeasement of communal groups.”
‘Hitlist’ proves crucial
As many as 156 prosecution witnesses in the case recorded their statements before the judge. The prosecution had submitted around 1,000 documents and 100 material objects in the court in connection with the case. A “hitlist” with names of people, including that of Sreenivas, to be targeted in case of retaliation to Nandukrishna’s murder found in the mobile phone of Anoop (third accused) has turned out to be crucial in proving the case.
Following the guilty verdict, the prosecution demanded maximum sentences for the convicts during arguments on the quantum of punishment in the court. The defence side will present their arguments on Monday.
Verdict welcomed
The family of Sreenivas and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have welcomed the verdict.
In a statement issued on Saturday, BJP State president K. Surendran said the verdict of the Mavelikara Additional District Session Court-I was a “major blow to terrorism and terrorists.” “Despite the Central ban, the Kerala government is adopting a soft approach towards the PFI. The PFI is operating secretly in Kerala posing a threat to the people and national security,” Mr. Surendran.
The Sreenivas murder case was investigated by a special team led by Alappuzha Dy.SP N.R. Jayaraj. Special Public Prosecutor Prathap G. Padickkal and advocates Sreedevi Prathap, Shilpa Sivan and Hareesh Kattoor represented the prosecution side.
Mr. Jayaraj said that in total there were some 30 accused in the Sreenivas murder case and a second chargesheet with the names of the remaining 15 accused, including that of conspirators, would be filed soon. Meanwhile, the trial in the Shan murder case has not yet begun.
