A Kerala Court sentenced 15 persons of now-banned Islamist outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) to death in connection with the murder of BJP OBC wing leader Ranjith Sreenivasan in this district in December 2021. The court found all of them - 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 - guilty of brutally murdering the BJP leader.
According to ANI, "BJP leader Ranjith Srinivasan Murder Case: 15 accused awarded capital punishment by Mavelikkara Additional Sessions Court"
The special prosecutor Prathap G Padickal said that although 14 out of the total of 15 persons convicted in the case were produced before the court on Tuesday, the judge orally stated that the sentence would also apply to the convict who was not produced today.
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The first eight accused, who directly took part in the murder act were found guilty under Sections 302 (murder), 149 (unlawful assembly), 449 (house trespass to commit offense punishable with death), 506 (criminal intimidation), and 341 (wrongful restraint) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The accused nine to 12, who stood guard outside the BJP’s leader’s house with deadly weapons when the assailants committed the crime, were convicted under Sections 302 r/w 149 and 447 (criminal trespass) of the IPC.
On December 19, 2021, Ranjith Sreenivasan, the state secretary of the BJP OBC Morcha, was brutally attacked and fatally wounded at his residence in the presence of his family. Ranjith, a distinguished lawyer within the Alappuzha Bar Council and a notable figure of the BJP in the district, succumbed to the assault.
Subsequently, on January 20, 2024, a Kerala court convicted 15 persons involved in the murder of the BJP OBC wing leader in Alappuzha.