Kerala - Kochi   

Show-cause notice to murder convicts

Staff Reporter

HIGH COURTROUND-UP On reasons for not giving death sentence

Kochi: A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Wednesday directed R. Shaji, a former Deputy Superintendent of Police, and Binu, both convicts in the Praveen murder case, to show cause why the sentence of life imprisonment awarded to them should not be enhanced to death penalty if the findings of the trial court were found correct.

The Bench, comprising Justice J.B. Koshy and Justice V. Ramkumar, issued the order when the appeals filed by the two came up.

The court said that it appeared from the judgment of the Kottayam Sessions Court, which imposed life imprisonment on them, that the crime was committed in such a way that it might bring it under the rarest of rare case. The court said that as per the judgment of the sessions court, the murder was committed in a well planned and diabolic manner so as to evoke the indignation of the public. Besides, it was committed by a police officer who was bound to protect the life of citizens. The State Prosecutor submitted that the State was intending to file an appeal seeking to enhance the sentence to death sentence.

The case relates to the murder of a 24-year-old youth, Praveen, by the first accused, Shaji, and four of his accomplices on the night of February 15. The motive behind the murder was the alleged illicit relationship between the victim and the wife of the first accused.

The prosecution case was that that the youth was strangled and his body was hacked into pieces and thrown at different places. The murder came to light after the local people found a severed leg in a rivulet near Kumarakom. Later, other organs were also fished out from different places. Of the five accused in the murder, Priyan, Sunil and Saji are still absconding.

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