The court sentenced 15 people associated with PFI to death in connection with the 2021 murder of the BJP OBC wing leader.
Arrest (Representational image/Creative Commons)
Four people have been arrested so far in connection with the alleged threats made against the Mavelikkara Additional Sessions Judge on various social media platforms after the verdict was pronounced in the murder of BJP OBC wing leader Ranjith Sreenivasan, the police said.
Security was heightened for Mavelikkara Additional Sessions Judge-IVG Sreedevi, after taking serious note of the online threats made against her.
In a release on Thursday, 1 February, the Alappuzha District police chief said that a total of five cases have been registered and the accused in four cases were arrested.
“Four cases were registered at Alappuzha South Police Station and one at Punnapra Police Station, and a special team was appointed to probe the matter,” it said.
Police said Mannanchery resident Naseermon (47), Mangalapuram resident Rafi (38), Alappuzha resident Navas Naina (42), and Ambalappuzha resident Shajahan (36) were arrested.
The court had, on Tuesday, sentenced 15 people associated with the now-banned outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) to death in connection with the 2021 murder of the BJP OBC wing leader that took place in Alappuzha district.
Soon after, posts on social media platforms verbally insulting the judge cropped up and were circulated by various accounts.
The coastal district of Alappuzha in Kerala witnessed a tense situation in 2021 following the brutal murder of two political rivals at a gap of twelve hours since the night of 18 December that year.
The violent incidents began at 7 pm on 18 December 2021, when a group of alleged BJP activists attacked the SDPI state secretary KS Shan (38) in Mannanchery with lethal weapons when he was on his way back home after meeting some friends.
The attackers, who came in a car, knocked Shan down from his motorbike and hacked him 40 times. The gang comprised four people.
Shan breathed his last at around 1 am on 19 December 2021, at a private hospital in Kochi, where he was brought to after the attack.
In retaliation, BJP OBC morcha state secretary Ranjith Sreenivasan (40) was killed by the now-convicted SDPI activists who barged into his residence at Vellakinar in Alappuzha and hacked him in front of his wife and aged mother. He died on the spot.
Ranjith was a BJP candidate in the Alappuzha constituency in the Assembly election held in April 2021 in Kerala. The incident occurred at around 7 am on 19 December 2021. Both Shan and Ranjith were practising advocates in the Alappuzha court.
This was the first time in Kerala that such a large number of people are getting death sentences in a single case.
The prosecution had sought the maximum sentence for the convicts, saying that they were a “trained killer squad” and the cruel and diabolical manner in which the victim was killed in front of his mother, infant, and wife brings it within the ambit of the “rarest of the rarest” of crimes.
The court had cross-examined 156 witnesses and verified over 1,000 pieces of evidence.
The trial was conducted at the Mavelikkara court as the lawyers of the Alappuzha Bar Association decided in unison not to appear for the accused as Ranjith was a practising lawyer with them.
“This was an exceptionally rare case and our loss is immense. We express our gratitude to the prosecution and investigating officers for conducting a thorough and honest investigation into the incident, ultimately resulting in the imposition of the maximum punishment,” Sreenivasan’s wife told reporters.
Meanwhile, BJP state president K Surendran thanked the investigating officers for ensuring justice for “Swargeeya” Ranjith, who was brutally murdered by “Islamic fanatics”. He said the family of Ranjith got justice as the investigation was foolproof.
(With PTI inputs)
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