ALAPPUZHA: Alappuzha Additional District Court III judge K Anilkumar found six youths, including the CPM former local secretary, were guilty in the Divakaran murder case. The court will pronounce the judgment on April 21.
The report submitted by the Cherthala police said Congress ward president K S Divakaran, 56, of Cherthala died after the youths attacked his house on November 29, 2009.
The court found V Sujith, 38, S Sathishkumar, 38, Praveen, 32, Benny, 45, N Sethukumar, 45, and R Byju, former CPM local secretary, were the accused in the case. The issue related to the selling of coir mats led to the attack of the house and the death of Divakaran.
The team led by Byju reached the home of Divakaran as part of the sale of coir mat under a project of the Coir Corporation.
They asked Divakaran to buy a mat. However, he denied, saying the rate of the mat was high, because he was a former employee of a coir factory in Cherthala. This led to an altercation and they kept a mat in the house of Divakaran forcefully. Dileep, son of Divakaran, raised the issue in the grama sabha which was held in the afternoon and it led to a war of words with each group.
Later, the gang attacked the house of Divakaran. The gang attacked Divakaran, his wife Reshmi and son Dileep. They thrashed him with a piece of wood, injuring his head. He was admitted to the Cherthala Taluk Hospital and he was later shifted to the Kottayam Medical College, where he died on December 9, 2009, the report said.
In the primary stage of investigation, Byju was not included in the list of accused. Later, the Congress staged an agitation and the police included him in the case. After that, the CPM removed him from the post of local secretary. Byju and Sethukumar were culprits in various cases registered by the police.