KASARAGOD: A BJP worker has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of CPM activist P Murali (37) of Kumbla in Kasaragod district, said public prosecutor Abdul Sathar M.
The Additional Sessions Court (II) of Kasaragod found BJP worker Sarath Raj (29) guilty of the crime.
However, the prosecution could not prove the guilt of seven other accused in the crime and the court acquitted them.
"We will appeal against the acquittal in the higher court," said Sathar.
The crime happened almost six years ago on October 27, 2014.
Murali and his friend were travelling in an autorickshaw when they were waylaid by Sarath Raj and three men on two motorcycles, according to the charge sheet which was termed as 'revenge killing'.
"Sarath Raj sat on Murali's chest and stabbed him 14 times, four of the wounds were fatal," said Sathar.
Sarath Raj's father and BJP activist Dayanandan was murdered in 2001, and Murali was one of the eight accused in the case.
All the accused were acquitted for lack of evidence. At the time of Dayanandan's murder, Sarath Raj was 10 years old.
"Though the charge sheet said that it was a revenge killing, we argued that it was a political murder because Murali was not the prime accused in the Dayanandan case and there was never an attack on any of the other accused," said the public prosecutor.
Moreover, Sarath Raj was facing trial in at least three murder and attempt to murder cases, he said. Also, there were two attempts on Murali's life before, said the prosecution.
Additional sessions judge Rajan Thattil described the murder as brutal and slapped a fine of Rs 2 lakh on Sarath Raj. He ordered that the money should be given to Murali's widow Rajani and daughter eight-year-old Malu.
The judge also said that the compensation should be collected from wages earned by Raj earned during his prison term.
"This is the first time a court is specifying how to raise the compensation money from the convict," said the public prosecutor.
The accused were defended by the then BJP state president P S Sreedharan Pillai. He cross-examined all the prime witnesses but opted out of the trial after he was made the governor of Mizoram.
Pillai had managed to get a complete acquittal in the four previous cases of political and communal murders in which BJP workers were accused.
In the murder case of Murali, except for the main accused, the court let off all the seven accused.
Sathar said the court accepted the presence of the first four accused at the crime scene.
"But they were let off because we could not convince the court that the other accused had prior knowledge that the crime would be committed," he said.