Kerala court finds 15 guilty in BJP leader Ranjith Sreenivasan murder in Dec 2021, sentence on Monday
ALAPPUZHA: A local court here on Saturday found the 15 accused persons -- all linked to PFI-SDPI -- behind the murder of BJP leader Ranjith Sreenivasan in December 2021, guilty.
The Mavelikara Additional District Session Court-I Judge Sreedevi V found the first eight accused, who took part in the murder, guilty under Section 302 (punishment for murder). The Court will announce the sentence on Monday.
The 15 accused who are convicted in the murder case are Naisam, Ajmal, Anoop, Mohammed Aslam, Abdul Kalam alias Salam, Abdul Kalam, Saffaruddin, Manshad, Jaseeb Raja, Navas, Sameer, Nazir, Abdul Kalam, Zakir Hussain, Shaji and Shernas Ashraf.
According to the prosecution, BJP OBC Morcha state secretary and lawyer Sreenivasan was hacked to death by the accused belonging to the Popular Front of India and the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) near his house at Vellakinar junction in Alappuzha municipality. The crime took place on December 19, 2021, in front of his mother, wife and daughter.
According to the charge sheet, Sreenivasan was murdered in retaliation to the murder of SDPI’s State Secretary K S Shan. It was a special team led by Alappuzha DySP N R Jayaraj who probed the case and arrested the accused.
Special Public Prosecutor Prathap G. Padickkal and advocates Sreedevi Prathap, Shilpa Sivan and Hareesh Kattoor represented the prosecution side.
There were 156 prosecution witnesses in the case.
The prosecution produced around 1,000 documents and 100 material objects in the court in connection with the case.
The trial in the case was transferred from Alappuzha to Mavelikara court based on a High Court order. The High Court moved the case considering a plea filed by the accused seeking to transfer the trial to another district.