The Mavelikara Additional District Session Court-I on January 22 heard arguments of the defence side on the quantum of punishment for the convicts in the BJP leader Ranjith Sreenivas murder case.
Last week, judge Sreedevi V.G. found all 15 accused, belonging to the now proscribed Popular Front of India (PFI) and its political arm Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), in the case guilty of the crime. The prosecution case was that Ranjith, who was the State secretary of the BJP’s OBC Morcha and a lawyer, was hacked to death most brutally by the accused at his house at Vellakinar in Alappuzha municipality on the morning of December 19, 2021.
Counsellors for the accused contended that the case would not fall under the rarest of rare category warranting capital punishment. Terming it a political murder, the defence argued that Ranjith was killed in a retaliatory strike to avenge the murder of SDPI’s State secretary K.S. Shan at Kuppezham Junction at Mannancherry, Alappuzha, allegedly by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) activists the night before.
The court posted the case to January 25 when it will directly hear what the accused have to say.
Following the guilty verdict on Saturday, the prosecution demanded maximum sentences for the convicts during arguments on the quantum of punishment.
