Mavelikkara: The Additional Sessions Court on Saturday convicted 15 SDPI (Social Democratic Party of India) - PFI (Popular Front of India) workers for the murder of BJP leader Ranjith Sreenivasan in Alappuzha. The quantum of punishment will be pronounced on Monday. 

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 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.

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Renjith Sreenivasan

Ranjith was a candidate in the Alappuzha constituency in the 2016 assembly elections.

He came under attack just hours after the SDPI state secretary, KS Shan, was hacked by a group of four members at Mannancherry on December 18, 2021. 

Alappuzha DySP N.R. Jayaraj investigated the case and later filed the charge sheet. The prosecution examined 156 witnesses and produced thousands of documents, including evidence. The prosecution also collected CCTV footage, route maps of the accused, fingerprints and others in the case.