Cherthala Divakaran murder Case: Death sentence to former CPM local secretary

Alappuzha additional district court III awarded death sentence to CPM former local secretary, who was found guilty in the murder of Congress ward president K S Divakaran on Saturday.

ALAPPUZHA: Alappuzha additional district court III awarded death sentence to CPM former local secretary, who was found guilty in the murder of Congress ward president K S Divakaran on Saturday.

The court awarded the capital punishment to R Byju, 45, Kakkaparambathu house, Cherthala.  Life term was awarded to five others in the murder by judge K Anilkumar.

The court also fined Rs 1 lakh each to all. KS  Divakaran 56,  Kochuparambil house,  Cherthala, died after a group attacked his house on November 29, 2009.

Court awarded life term to  V Sujith, 38, Cheppilapozhi house, Cherthala;  S Sathishkumar, 38, Konattu house;  P Praveen, 32 Cheppilapozhi house; M  Benny,45, Vavally house;  N Sethukumar 45, Choolakkal house.

The court observed that Byju, the sixth accused in the case is highly influential in 2009 period. So in the preliminary stage the police excluded him from the case, the judgment said.

The issues related to the sale of coir mats led to the attack of house and attacked Divakaran and it led to the death.

The team led by Byju reached the home of Divakaran as part of the sale of coir mat under a project of Coir Corporation on November 29.  They demanded Divakaran to buy a mat, however, he denied that the rate of mat was high, because he was a former employee of a coir factory in Cherthala.  This led to an altercation with him. Dileep, son of Divkaran raised the issue in the ‘grama sabha’ which held in the afternoon and it led to war of words with each group. Later, the gang attacked the house of Divakaran.

The gang attacked Divakaran, wife Reshmi and son Dileep. The gang beat Divakaran with wooden piece and it created deep wound on his head. He was admitted to Cherthala taluk hospital and later shifted to Kottayam Medical College where he died on December 9, the report said.

In the primary stage of investigation, Byju was not included in the list of accused.

Later, the Congress staged agitation and the police include Byju in the case.  After that the CPM removed him from the post of local secretary.

Byju and Sethukumar were culprit in various cases registered by the police.