THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The CBI special court on Wednesday sentenced the second accused in the kidnapping and murder of a final year engineering student 17 years ago to double imprisonment. Mohammed Ali of Andaman Islands was sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for theft and life imprisonment for conspiracy and the murder of Shyamal Mandal, a student of College of Engineering Trivandrum, whose putrefied body was found near Vellar in 2005.
Judge K Sanilkumar also slapped a fine totalling Rs 10.1 lakh on Ali. Of this, Rs 4 lakh should be given to the family of Shyamal, the judge said. The first accused, Durga Bahadur, remains at large.
As per the CBI, Shyamal, also from Andaman Islands, was abducted by Ali and Bahadur on October 13, 2005, from East Fort. The duo demanded a ransom of Rs 20 lakh from Shyamal’s father Vasudev Mandal, who was a government employee and a money lender in the islands. Vasudev alerted the police who laid a trap for the kidnappers. Sensing arrest, the duo decapitated Shyamal and dumped his body near Vellar. It was found on October 23, 2005.
The local police probed the case initially before the Crime Branch took over. The case was handed over to the CBI in 2008 following a High Court directive issued on Vasudev’s petition seeking a probe by the Central agency.
During the trial, Vasudev said he recognised his son’s body from his dress, shoes and two teeth having amalgam fillings. The probe revealed Vasudev had lent money to Ali’s father and Ali believed Vasudev had amassed huge wealth from it. To get the money, Ali hatched the plan with Bahadur to kidnap the youth. Due to the lack of eyewitnesses, the CBI relied on circumstantial evidence to prove the case. The prosecution produced 78 pieces of material evidence and recorded statements of 53 witnesses.