KOTTAYAM: The Principal Sessions Court Kottayam has sentenced all the 10 accused who were found guilty in the Kevin murder case, to double life imprisonment. The sentences shall run concurrently. Each of them should pay a fine of Rs 40,000.
Of this Rs one lakh should be given to Aneesh Sebastian, the first accused, as compensation. The remaining amount should be equally divided between Kevin's father and fiancee, said the court. If the fine is not paid, their vehicles should be confiscated, the court said.
Last week the court had convicted 10 persons in the Kevin murder case, including his fiancée's brother.
On Saturday when the court met, there were dramatic scenes when the sessions judge C Jayachandran considered the case hearing the arguments of the prosecution and the accused's counsel with regard to the sentence as the all guilty persons broke down and sobbed in the court pleading the judge to consider their age and family situation while pronouncing sentence.
Meanwhile, the first accused submitted a written request before the court. The accused's counsels also raised the point of guilty persons' age and the fact they never had faced in criminal cases before. However, the prosecution demanded maximum punishment for the guilty persons citing the Supreme Court observations in honour killing cases.
According to prosecution the apex court had the directed to award death sentence for the guilty persons in the honour killing, quoting the observation of justice Markandey Katju that "all persons who are planning to perpetrate `honour' killings should know that the gallows await them."
Notably, the court once observed that the case belonged to the category of rarest of the rare while the arguments were progressing.
Hearing the arguments of court posted the case to August 27 to pronounce the judgement. Earlier, the court had convicted 10 among 14 accused including Syanu Chacko, brother of Kevin's fiancée Neenu Chacko on the other day.
Apart from Syanu, the other persons convicted in the case are Niyasmon alias Chinnu, Ishan Isamyil, Riyas Ibrahimkutty, Manu Muraleedharan, Shifin Sajjad, N Nishad, Tittu Jerome, Fazil Sherif alias Appus, and Shanu Shajahan.
The court observed that IPC section 302 (murder charge) and 364 A (abduction for ransom or in order to compel any other person to do or abstain from doing any act) will stand against all the convicts.
Meanwhile, the court acquitted four accused including Neenu's father Chacko John, for want of evidences.
Pronouncing the judgement, the court approved the prosecution's argument that racial prejudice was the motive behind the youth's murder.
This is the first honour killing case being registered in the State. As per prosecution case, Kevin P Joseph, son of Joseph Jacob alias Rajan hailing from Platharayil house, Nattasseri near Kottayam, was abducted and murdered by a gang led by Syanu, to break the victim's relationship with Syanu's sister Neenu Chacko.
Two days before the death, Kevin and Neenu had filed a joint application for marriage. While Neenu was sent to a hostel thereafter, Kevin shifted to the residence of Aneesh Sebastian, one of his relative, at Gandhinagar.
In the early hours of May 27, 2018, Kevin and Aneesh were abducted from here and Aneesh was let off later. However, Kevin's body was recovered from a stream near Chaliyekkara, near Thenmala in the morning.
The case was investigated by DySP Girish P Sarathy and C S Ajayan appeared for prosecution.