In a major development in the investigation into the the murder of BJP OBC wing leader Ranjith Sreenivasan in Alapuzzha in Kerala, A Kerala court on Tuesday has given death sentence to 15 persons associated with the now-banned Islamist outfit Popular Front of India (PFI). The sentence was pronounced by Mavelikkara Additional District judge V G Sreedevi.
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.
Ranjith Sreenivasan's murder
Ranjith Sreenivasan was brutally attacked and killed in his own house on December 19, 2021, in front of his family. There are 31 accused in the murder case of the state secretary of the BJP's OBC Morcha, and this verdict was pronounced for 15 accused. On January 20, the Mavelikkara Additional Sessions Judge, VG Sreedevi, found all the 15 accused guilty of the murder and on Tuesday the court sentenced all of them to death for the heinous crime. Renjith, a practicing advocate at the Alappuzha Bar Association, was the BJP's candidate for the Alappuzha Assembly constituency in 2021.
The gruesome incident occurred on December 19, 2021, when PFI members barged into his residence in Alappuzha and hacked him to death in the presence of his wife and mother. 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.
