The quantum of sentence to 10 persons found guilty of abducting and murdering Kevin P. Joseph , a Dalit Christian from Kottayam, will be pronounced on August 27.
The Principal Sessions Court here, which conducted the final hearing, witnessed some dramatic scenes as all the 10 convicts broke down before the judge , pleading him to take into account their age and family situation while deciding on the sentence.
During the hearing on Saturday, the prosecution pressed for exemplary punishment to the guilty and cited the Supreme Court observations in various honour killing cases. C.S. Ajayan, special public prosecutor, pointed out that the apex court direction on awarding death sentence to the guilty in the honour killing cases. He further quoted the observation of former judge of the Supreme Court Markandey Katju that “all persons who are planning to perpetrate honour killings should know that the gallows await them.”
Kevin's father Joseph and wife Neenu.
If the court is not inclined to award capital punishment, double life imprisonment should be given to the guilty. Moreover, life imprisonment should be superimposed, which should commence only after serving term sentences for other charges.
This apart, exemplary fine should be slapped on the guilty and the amount should be given to Kevin’s fiancée Neenu Chacko for her rehabilitation, and as compensation to Kevin’s parents and cousin Aneesh Sebastian, whose house was destroyed by the accused while abducting Kevin. In case of a default in paying the amount, their vehicles should be forfeited, the prosecution said.
The counsel of the accused, on the other hand, pleaded the court not to consider the case as rarest of rare. The court, however, observed that it could not go against the Supreme Court’s rulings that put honour killing cases as rarest of rare.
The defence counsel requested the court to consider the age of the guilty and provide them an opportunity to reform, while also pointing out that there were no antecedents of criminal activities by the guilty.
Meanwhile, Syanu Chacko, brother of Neenu, submitted a written request, which stated that he had never considered the caste or religion of Kevin as he married a girl of different caste while his parents too belonged to different religions.
Hearing the arguments, the court posted the case to August 27 to pronounce the judgment.
The court had already convicted 10 of the 14 accused and acquitted four, including Neenu’s father Chacko John.
