Kerala twin murder case: Ex-MLA, three others get relief from HC

Kochi, Jan 8 (IANS) Five days after a CBI court here sentenced 10 CPI(M) workers to a double-life term and four others, including a former party legislator to five-year imprisonment in the Periya twin murder case, the Kerala High Court on Wednesday stayed the verdict of the four.

No sooner had the CBI court termed former party legislator K.V. Kunhiraman and three accused of forcibly removing the second accused from police custody, guilty, the CPI(M) party top bosses flayed the Centre for using the CBI to target the political opponents of the BJP.

The CPI(M) has been stating that when the Kerala Police and the Crime Branch had probed this case, neither Kunhiraman nor the other three were named as accused and it was only after the CBI took over the case, that the names were included.

Kunhiraman and the three others were given a five-year jail term and now with the High Court staying it, these four will soon be released from the Kannur jail where they have been since Saturday.

The case pertains to the brutal murders of Youth Congress workers -- Kripesh (19) and P.K. Sarath Lal (24) -- on February 17, 2019, in Periya, Kasaragod district.

Last week the CBI court here convicted 14 accused and exonerated 10 others in the case.

Reacting to the fresh directive, the father of Sarath Lal said they will take legal recourse to this and the earlier verdict where 10 people were exonerated.

The victims were killed by CPI(M) workers in a politically-motivated attack. According to the court, eight of the accused were directly involved in the twin murders, while six others played indirect roles.

The court gave a double-life term to the eight who were directly involved in the cold-blooded murder, while two others, who were part of the conspiracy, were also given a double-life term. Initially investigated by the Crime Branch, the case was handed over to the CBI after a plea was filed by the victims’ families in the High Court. The CBI concluded that the murders stemmed from a cycle of politically motivated attacks between CPI(M) and Congress workers in the region.

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