During a hearing today, a court in the Alappuzha district of Kerala pronounced the death penalty for the murder of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Ranjith Sreenivas. A total of 15 convicts were sentenced in connection with the crime, as reported by Mathrubhumi. 

The accused, namely Naisam, Ajmal, Anoop, Mohammed Aslam, Abdul Kalam alias Salam, Abdul Kalam, Saffaruddin, Manshad, Jaseeb Raja, Navas, Sameer, Nazir, Zakir Hussain, Shaji Poovathungal, and Shernas Ashraf, had been convicted by the Mavelikara Additional Sessions Court on January 20.

The Court issued the verdict, condemning all the convicts, who were reportedly affiliated with the Popular Front of India (PFI) and the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), to the death penalty.

Twelve of the accused were found guilty under Section 302 (murder) read with Section 149 (Every member of an unlawful assembly guilty of an offense committed in prosecution of a common object) of the Indian Penal Code, while the remaining three were convicted under Section 302 (murder) read with Section 120B (criminal conspiracy).

Case Brief:

As per a report in The Hindu, Ranjith Sreenivas, the state secretary of the BJP’s OBC Morcha and a lawyer, was brutally murdered by the accused at his residence in Vellakinar, Alappuzha municipality, on December 19, 2021, in the presence of his mother and wife.