Kerala High Court Sentences Five BJP Workers To Life In 2015 JD(U) Leader's Murder
Kochi, Kerala: The Kerala High Court on Tuesday sentenced five BJP-RSS workers to life imprisonment for the 2015 murder of Janata Dal (U) leader P.G. Deepak.
Deepak was the president of the Janata Dal (U) Nattika constituency, and was a former BJP leader and later joined the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), now renamed JD(U).
The accused who were sentenced to life includes M.S. Rishikesh, K.U. Nijil (Kunjappu), K.P. Prashanth (Kochu), Rashanth, and V.P. Breshnev. The politician was murdered in a planned attack located in Pazhu, Thrissur.
Read Also: Compensation To Victim Not A Ground For Reducing Jail Sentence: Supreme Court
Earlier, Thrissur Additional session court had acquitted all the ten accused in the murder case. The lower court had cited the inability of the prosecution to identify the attackers, who wore masks during the assault.
State government and the victim Deepak’s wife, Varsha, had filed an appeal against the acquittal of the accused in the High Court. The High Court, in a ruling by a division bench comprising Justice P.B. Suresh Kumar and Justice Jabin Sebastian, upheld the murder charges against five individuals.
It had ordered the immediate arrest of the accused on March 27. The court found that the trial court had failed to properly examine the evidence and had focused on irrelevant details.
Read Also: Bengal Court Orders Death Sentence To Rape Accused In 62 Days; Mamata Banerjee Hails The Verdict
Notably, though the five accused were sentenced for the murder, the remaining five — Sivadasan, Ragesh, K.S. Baiju, Sarasan, and Sanand — were acquitted from the charges. The charges against those who were acquitted were inciting violence and destroying evidence.
The killing occurred on the night of March 25, 2015. Deepak was closing his ration shop in Pazhu when the assailants arrived in a vehicle in the area. The attackers hacked Deepak to death. Those who tried to intervene were also sustained injuries.
It is reported that the motive behind the attack was political, given Deepak’s defection from the saffron party.
