KOCHI: The CBI court in Kochi on Saturday found 14 persons including former CPM MLA K V Kunhiraman guilty in the 2019 Periya twin murder case. The court will announce the sentence on January 3.
CPM local committee member A Peethambaran, Saji C George, Suresh K M, Anil Kumar K alias Abu, Gijin, Shrirag R alias Kuttu, Aswin A alias Appu, Subeesh alias Mani, Ranjith T alias Appu, K Manikandan (Kanhangad block panchayat president), A Surendran alias Vishnu Sura, K V Kunhiraman (former Udma MLA and CPM Kasaragod district secretariat member), Raghavan Velutholy alias Raghavan Nair (former CPM Pakkam local secretary Raghavan Velutholy) and K V Bhaskaran were named guilty.
As many as 10 accused persons were acquitted by the court from the case. The acquitted persons are Murali A, Pradeep alias Kuttan, Manikandan B, Balakrishnan N, Madhu A alias Sastha Madhu, Reji Varghese, Hariprasad A, Rajesh P alias Raju, Gopa Kumar V alias Gopan Velutholy and Sandeep PV alias Sandeep Velutholy.
The first accused Pethambaran was removed as CPM Periya local committee member after the murder incident.
Youth Congress leaders Sarath Lal K P (23) and Kripesh (19) were murdered at Periya in Kasaragod district.
Before the murder, first accused Peethambaran and co-accused Surendran, alias Vishnu Sura, were assaulted by Sarath Lal and others on January 5 that year at Kalliot in Kasaragod, following a clash between KSU and SFI members.
After Sarath Lal was released from jail in the assault case, Peethambaran and Gijin Gangadharan, a schoolmate who had a personal grudge against Sarath Lal, decided on a retaliatory attack.
The attack was carried out beside the Kalliot-Thannithode road that passes by the areca nut plantation belonging to Gijin’s family. Youth Congress workers were returning home when they were waylaid and attacked by eight men.
The Crime Branch probed the case and filed a chargesheet against 14 persons. Later, following the direction of the Kerala High Court, CBI took over the probe. The state government had also challenged the High Court decision to hand over the probe to CBI at the High Court Division Bench and Supreme Court.
The first eight accused persons who were directly involved in the murder were found guilty under IPC sections 302 (murder), 143 (unlawful assembly), 147, (rioting), 201(destruction of evidence), 148 (rioting while armed with a deadly weapon), 341 (wrongful restraint) and 120(b) criminal conspiracy. CPM leaders Kunhiraman, Manikandan, Raghavan and Bhaskaran were found guilty under IPC section 225 (obstructing lawful apprehension of accused).
Renjith T and A Surendran were found guilty of conspiracy, destruction of evidence, and obstructing the accused's lawful apprehension.
Kunhiraman, Manikandan, Raghavan and Bhaskaran requested the court to continue their bail till the sentence against them is announced. CBI strongly objected to their plea.
However, the court allowed them to continue on bail and to be present before the court on January 3.
Later, to decide on the quantum of the sentence, the court heard from each of the persons found guilty. The rest of the convicted persons were shifted to Viyyur Central Jail and Kakkanad District Jail.
Sarathlal's father Satyanarayanan, and Kripresh's father Krishnan were present at the court when the court announced the verdict.
"We cannot be happy as our sons were murdered by CPM leaders and party workers. However, the verdict is a relief for us. We desired that all the accused could have been found guilty in the case. We will request CBI to file an appeal against the acquittal of 10 persons in higher courts. The verdict should be a lesson to CPM which has no mercy in taking the lives of innocent people. We thank the people of Kerala, CBI and judiciary for supporting us," both said.
After the verdict was announced Congress MP Hibi Eden and Congress Ernakulam DCC president Mohammed Shiyas reached the CBI court complex and met with relatives of deceased Sharath Lal and Kripesh.
"If Pinarayi Vijayan has any shame, he should return the money paid to lawyers for not letting CBI take over the probe. The verdict is a dent to CPM's violent politics. Even though, in similar cases the party leaders are often acquitted, the court has found CPM leaders guilty in this case. We congratulate CBI, the court and the people of Kerala," Hibi said.
Courts stood in favour of the CBI investigation. CBI after taking over the probe arraigned 10 more accused including CPM leaders and filed a chargesheet against them in 2022.
The trial of the case commenced in February 2023. As part of the trial 154 witnesses, 495 documents and 83 Material Objects were examined.