KOCHI:The CBI Court on Thursday found two persons guilty even as it acquitted three others in a case pertaining to the murder of Balakrishnan, 29, a Kasargod native Youth Congress (YC) leader, for purportedly marrying a woman oustside his religion in 2001. The court will announce the quantum of sentence on Friday.Mohammad Iqbal alias Ikku of Thekkil, Chattachal, Kasargod, and Mohammed Haneef alias Jackie Haneef of Thalangara, Kasargod, were found guilty by the court under IPC section 120(b) for conspiracy and section 302 for murder.
The court, however, acquitted A Abdul Gafoor alias Gafoor, of Thayalandgadi, Kasargod; A M Muhammad of Chengala, Kasargod, and Aboobackar Haji of Uppala, Kasargod. CBI Court Judge S Santhosh Kumar decided to acquit the three persons since the CBI failed to produce concrete evidence to prove charges levelled against them.
The convicts have been sent to Ernakulam Sub Jail after their bail was struck down by the court. The court will conduct a hearing before pronouncing the sentence of Friday. The incident took place on September 18, 2001, when Balakrishnan was stabbed after being abducted and forcibly taken in a car. He was murdered allegedly for marrying a Muslim woman, the daughter of fifth accused Aboobacker.
Though Balakrishnan was rushed to a hospital, he succumbed to injuries. The postmortem report stated Balakrishnan suffered five vital injuries in his chest portion, which led to the death.
During the investigation, the police found Mohammad Iqbal and Mohammad Haneefa were directly involved in the murder, while Gafoor and A M Mohammad were part of the conspiracy. The case was later handed over to the Crime Branch.
Following a directive of the Kerala High Court, the CBI took over the probe in the case in 2010. Later, the CBI arraigned Aboobacker as an accused in the case and, with the assistance of Interpol, they tracked down and arrested Mohammad Iqbal, who was hiding in Dubai. The sixth accused Ahmed was made approver by the court. The trial of the case started a year ago at the CBI Court in Kochi.