New Delhi, India

A court in the Indian state of Kerala, on Tuesday (Jan 30) sentenced to death 15 people associated with the now-banned Islamist outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) days after they were convicted of their role in the murder of ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, reported news agency PTI. 

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About the sentence

The death sentence was given by Mavelikkara Additional District Judge VG Sreedevi to 15 people who were found guilty of the murder of 45-year-old BJP Other Backward Class (OBC) wing leader, Ranjith Sreenivasan. 

All 15 are associated with the now-banned PFI. 

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Sreenivasan was said to have been brutally attacked and killed in his home in Kerala’s Alappuzha district in December 2021. The sentence comes after the prosecution sought a maximum sentence for the convicts, saying that they were a “trained killer squad”. 

The sentence on Tuesday (Jan 30) came 10 days after the court found eight out of the 15 people accused in the case directly involved in the murder, while others were said to be guilty of criminal conspiracy. 

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The 15 convicted are Naisam, Ajmal, Anoop, Mohammed Aslam, Abdul Kalam alias Salam, Saffaruddin, Manshad, Jaseeb Raja, Navas, Sameer, Nazir, Abdul Kalam, Zakir Hussain, Shaji and Shernas Ashraf.

Local BJP leader’s ‘brutal’ murder

Sreenivasan was reportedly hacked to death in front of his wife, mother and minor daughter on December 19, 2021. In line with the cruel manner in which the victim was killed, the prosecution argued that it brings the case within the scope of the “rarest of the rarest” of crimes.

On January 20, the Kerala court found all 15 accused in the case guilty, with eight directly involved and four others, who showed up with deadly weapons at the scene of the crime, guilty of murder. 

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It was also their job to prevent the victim from leaving the house or letting anyone who heard the screams enter. Additionally, the court also found three others who hatched the conspiracy to kill Sreenivasan guilty of murder. 

The fatal attack on Sreenivasan is regarded as an act of retaliation that took place hours after the PFI’s political wing, Social Democratic Party of India’s (SDPI) leader KS Shan was killed by a gang on December 18, 2021. 

The trial for the Shan murder case will commence on February 2. 

(With inputs from agencies)