Mavelikkara: In a historic verdict in Kerala, the Mavelikkara Additional Sessions Court has issued death sentence to all convicted in the murder of BJP leader Ranjith Sreenivasan in Alappuzha. The court handed down this severe penalty to all 15 SDPI (Social Democratic Party of India) - PFI (Popular Front of India) workers besides fine and rigorous imprisonment as part of the sentencing.

The sentence was pronounced by Mavelikkara Additional District judge V G Sreedevi.

The family of the deceased expressed happiness with the verdict and Renjith’s widow said though the loss for them was huge, they were deeply indebted to the court for handing the maximum punishment to the accused, which they have understood is rare.

“It’s been 770 days since this crime took place and after hearing the verdict, we feel our wait was worth it. Special thanks to the prosecution and the police who stood with us,” said Renjith’s wife.

On January 20, the court found that the first 12 accused were directly involved in the murder, and accused 13 to 15 assisted them. Meanwhile, the prosecution effectively established murder charges against the first eight accused. The others were found guilty of criminal conspiracy.

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 convicted are Naizam, Ajmal, Anoop, Muhammed Aslam, Salam Ponnad, Abdul Kalam, Safarudheen, Munshad, Jaseeb Raja, Navas, Shemeer, Naseer, Zakeer Hussain, Shaji Poovathungal and Shamnas Ashraf.

Ranjith, a BJP state committee member and OBC Morcha state secretary was hacked to death on December 19, 2021. A group of armed men barged into his house and hacked him to death in front of his wife, mother and younger daughter.