9 RSS workers in Kerala sentenced to life for murder of another RSS worker

Mangalore Today News Network

Kollam, Aug 08, 2020:    Nine Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) workers in Kerala have been sentenced to life by a Kollam court for the murder of Kadavoor Jayan, another RSS worker, eight years ago. Kollam Principal Sessions Court judge Suresh Kumar C, announced the verdict over video conferencing, since two of the convicts contracted COVID-19.

 

All the nine convicts are also fined with an amount of Rs 71,500 each, failing to pay which will cost them four more years in prison. From the fine, Rs 2 lakh shall be given to Jayan’s mother and Rs 25,000 to Raghunatha Pillai, who also got attacked with Jayan.

The seventh, eighth and ninth accused will not get punishment under Section 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon) since they had not used weapons.

The nine convicts are Vinod, Gopakumar, Subrahmanyan, Priyaraj, Pranav, Arun, Rajineesh, Dinaraj and Shiju. Eight of them are from Kadavoor.

They were presented before the court through video conferencing from Kayamkulam Covid First Line Treatment Centre.

Jayan was stabbed to death near his home at the Kadavoor junction in Kollam on January 7, 2012. His brother-in-law Raghunatha Pillai was also injured in the attack. Jayan had 50 wounds in his body.

The prosecution presented 23 witnesses, 75 proofs and 38 material evidences. The defence examined 20 witnesses.

Special public prosecutor Adv C Prathapachandran Pillai, Adv Mahendran, Adv Shibu R Nair were present for the prosecution.

This is the second time that the accused are punished to life for the same case.

The Kollam Additional Session Court had earlier punished all the accused to life. However, the accused had then approached the High Court claiming that they did not get a chance to make a final argument. The case was then transferred to Kollam Sessions Court to hear the final argument. It is after hearing their argument that the court found them guilty.

Courtesy:The News Minute