THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Thiruvananthapuram Fast Track Sessions Court on Friday convicted eight BJP-RSS workers for the 2013 murder of Ashokan aka Sreekumar, a CPM worker in Kattakada.
The court found five accused guilty of carrying out the murder and three others guilty of conspiracy. The quantum of punishment in the long-standing case will be announced on Wednesday.
The convicted include Shambhukumar, Sreejith, Harikumar, Chandramohan, Santhosh, Abhishek aka Anni Santhosh, Prashanth aka Pazhanji Prashanth and Sajeev, all natives of Kullathummal village.
The first accused, Shambhukumar and fifth accused, Santhosh are brothers. Abhishek, Prashanth and Sajeev are defendants 7, 10 and 12 respectively. The court found defendants 1 to 5 guilty of murdering Ashokan and defendants 7, 10 and 12 guilty of conspiracy.
The incident happened on May 5, 2013, at 6.45 pm at Alamcode Junction, where Ashokan was brutally hacked and beaten to death.
The murder was linked to a financial dispute involving Shambhukumar and Aadu Binu from Kattakada, who is a witness in the case. The issue began when Binu, a friend of Ashokan, borrowed Rs 10,000 at interest from Shambhukumar by pledging the RC book of his bike. When Binu failed to pay the interest, Shambhukumar seized Binu’s bike keys. Sreekumar intervened and questioned Shambhukumar, leading to a fight where he assaulted Shambhukumar.
In retaliation, Shambhukumar conspired with the other accused while receiving treatment at Kattakada Taluk Hospital. Ashokan was then murdered at Alamcode Junction on May 5 2013. “Ashokan was a CPM worker, while the accused were BJP. However, the court concluded that the murder was not politically motivated,” said special public prosecutor, A A Hakkim. Initially, the case had 19 accused, but one passed away, and two turned approvers.
Sreekanth and Kochu Suresh, defendants 8 and 9, turned approvers in the case. Although the defence highlighted the absence of the murder weapon and other critical evidence, the prosecution argued that those are not major issues referring to many Supreme Court verdicts and the court ruled in favour of the prosecution.
Eight others - defendants 6, 11, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, and 19- were acquitted due to lack of evidence. These accused were charged with assisting in committing the crime or destroying evidence, but the court found no substantial proof against them.
The prosecution examined 45 witnesses and presented 119 records and 10 material pieces of evidence. Special public prosecutor Vembayam A A Hakkim, advocates S Priyan and Athul Krishnan S L, appeared for the prosecution side.