Double life imprisonment to 10 convicts in Periya twin murder case

Tearful mothers of Kripesh and Sarathlal pay homage at the memorial after hearing the verdict in the Periya double murder case.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Ten convicts in the Periya twin murder case were awarded life imprisonment on two counts, for murder and conspiracy and four others including former Uduma MLA and CPI (M) leader K. V. Kunjuiraman were awarded five years imprisonment for obstructing the lawful apprehension of the accused.

The convicts Peethambaran, Saji George, Suresh, Anilkumar, Jijin, Sreerag, Aswin, Sudheesh, Renjith, and Surendran were convicted for life. They were also found guilty of unlawful assembly, rioting, and wrongful restraint and also fined ₹2 lakh each. N. Seshadrinathan, Special Judge, CBI Court, Kochi, ordered that the punishment would run concurrently.

Manikandan, K. V., Kunjuraman Velutholi Raghavan, and A. V. Bhaskaran were among the convicts who were awarded five years’ imprisonment. The four were also fined ₹10,000 each. The bail of these accused was cancelled.

The prosecution case was that the accused murdered Youth Congress leaders Kripesh and Sarathlal at Kannadippara near Periya, due to political hostility. The case reflected and represented the bizarre offshoot of political vandalism culminating in the premature death of two vibrant youths, leaving their family members to incessant woe, observed the court.

The judge appreciated Madhavan, a journalist’s deposition regarding the acts of four accused to rescue the second accused, Saji George, from police custody. He narrated the entire episode in a comprehensible manner, and the evidence was wholly reliable and trustworthy and appeared to be free from embellishments and additions. The evidence inspired the confidence of the court, the judge noted.

The judge observed that the prosecution succeeded in establishing the motive, the criminal conspiracy hatched between the accused and the common object of the unlawful assembly to kill Kripesh and Sarathlal. The chain of circumstances was wholly complete without a missing link, the judge observed.

The court arrived at the firm opinion that the prosecution succeeded in proving the fact that the accused in the hit team inflicted the fatal injuries found on the bodies of Sarathlal and Kripesh.

The judge quoted a Supreme Court, which noted that while the “top leaders belonging to different political

parties dine together and socialise with each other without any personal acrimony as between themselves, it is a pity that they do not encourage that healthy attitude to percolate down to the grass root level.”

The “tender mind gets galvanised on minor issues, frenzy flares up even on trivialities, young children and

adolescents unaware of the disastrous consequences befalling their own future indulge in vandalism, mayhem and killing spree against their own fellow students,” quoting the apex court order, the CBI special judge noted.