A court in Kerala's Alappuzha district issued the death penalty to 15 convicts on Tuesday for the murder of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Ranjith Sreenivas. The convicted persons, including 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, were found guilty by the Mavelikara Additional Sessions Court on January 20.
The court's decision follows the conviction of the accused, reportedly associated with the Popular Front of India (PFI) and Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI). Twelve of the convicts were found guilty under Section 302 (murder) read with Section 149 (Every member of unlawful assembly guilty of the offence committed in prosecution of common object) of the Indian Penal Code, while the remaining three were convicted under Section 302 (murder) read with Section 120B (criminal conspiracy).
Ranjith Sreenivas, the State secretary of BJP’s OBC Morcha and a lawyer, was brutally attacked and killed at his residence in Vellakinar, Alappuzha municipality, on December 19, 2021, in the presence of his mother and wife. The murder was reportedly in retaliation for the killing of SDPI’s State Secretary KS Shan the night before at Kuppezham Junction, Mannancherry, allegedly by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) activists.
During the sentencing hearing, the prosecution advocated for maximum penalties, asserting the gravity of the crime, while the defense argued that the case did not meet the criteria for capital punishment as the rarest of rare. The court also ordered a mental stability test for the convicts at the Government Medical College in Alappuzha.