THRISSUR: It’s a double whammy of sorts for the CPM in the state on Friday. While the apex court in the morning upheld the conviction of CPM State Committee member M V Jayarajan for making derogatory remarks against Kerala High Court judges and publicly ridiculing the judiciary for ordering a ban on road-side meetings, the Irinjalakkuda District Additional Sessions Court sentenced 10 persons, including a local committee secretary of CPM, to life term after they were found guilty of hacking a youth to death at Perinajanam in Thrissur on 2 March, 2014.
District court judge P Ragini also ordered the convicts to give a fine of `1 lakh each to the wife of the victim and `50,000 to two others injured in the attack, while acquitting the ninth accused Sumesh for want of evidence. If they failed to pay the fine, they have to undergo additional imprisonment.
The convicted are 1st accused Rinto, 32, of Puthukkad; second accused Salesh, 22, of Kallur; third accused Bidhun, 22, of Kallur; fourth accused Jickson, 31, of Puthukkad; fifth accused Udaykumar, 45, of Perinjanam and CPM workers Habeeb, 31, of Kaipamangalm; Satheesh, 29, of Perinjanam and Ramadasan, 41, of Perinjanam who are the sixth, seventh and eights accused respectively; 10th accused Rafeeque, and eleventh accused Subair.
Ramadasan is the CPM Perinjanam local committee secretary .
There were a total of eleven accused in the infamous Perinjanam Nawas murder case of which 10 were given life imprisonment. Of the 10 convicts, four were quotation gang members hired by the CPM.
According to the prosecution case, Nawas, son of Thaliyapadathu Muhammedali, Munnupedika, was hacked to death by a masked-gang outside his house at Perinjanam on the night of March 2. Though the attack was follow up to the sequel of clashes between the CPM and the BJP in the area, the victim has no connection with the political rivalry existing in the area.
The first four accused, who were mules of a ‘quotation gang,’ hacked him to death suspecting that he was the target of their quotation. They came in search of a BJP worker Kalladan Girish but the accused six and seven misjudged the target in the night and gave wrong direction to quotation gang.