Kottayam: In the first conviction for honour killing in Kerala, the Kottayam Municipal Sessions Court awarded double life sentence to all 10 convicts in the Kevin Joseph murder case on Tuesday. The double life sentence will run concurrently.
Each convict will have to pay a fine of Rs 40,000. Of this, Rs 1.5 lakh each will be paid to Neenu and Kevin's father Joseph. Kevin's friend Aneesh, who was also abducted and assaulted with him, will be paid Rs 1 lakh from the fine.
The court observed that the murder was of the rarest of rare nature. The court had convicted 10 of the 14 accused for honour killing on August 22.
The 10 convicted persons are Sanu Chacko, brother of Kevin's fiancee Neenu, Niyas Mon, Ishan Ismail, Riyas Ibrahimkutty, Manu Maraleedharan, Sheffin Sajad, N Nishad, Fazil Sheriff and Shanu Shahjahan. Neenu's father Chacko John and three others-Ramiz Sherif, Shinu Shajahan, Vishnu-were acquitted.
Kevin P Joseph, a 24-year-old Dalit Christian youth from Kottayam, was abducted and murdered by Sanu and and the other convicts in May, 2018.
Reacting to the sentence, Kevin's father Joseph said though capital punishment was expected for some of the convicts, double life sentence is a fair punishment. He added that he will continue the legal fight against Neenu's father Chacko, who was earlier acquitted by the court.
Though the prosecution had demanded death penalty for the convicts, the defence asked the court to reduce the punishment and give them a chance for repentance considering their young age and troubled background.
The court had ruled that Kevin's murder was a clear case of honour killing. The charges slapped on the convicts include murder, kidnapping and trespassing.
The preliminary hearing of the case which began on February 13, 2019 was completed last month. The trial had to be completed in a span of six months as the case was deemed an honour killing.
The investigating team was led by Kottayam Superintendent of Police Harisankar.
The charge-sheet of the case says that Kevin, a Dalit Christian from Kottayam, was kidnapped and murdered by a gang led by Sanu Chacko, brother of Kevin's fiancee Neenu Chacko on May 27, last year.
Sanu was the prime accused while his father Chacko was the fifth accused.
Kevin had met Neenu while she pursued a course in a Kottayam college. Two days before the murder, the two of them had filed a joint application for marriage registration at a sub-registrar office in Kottayam as the family of the girl had fiercely objected to their marriage. Neenu's family later registered a complaint with the police stating that she had gone missing. Though the police summoned the two, Kevin and his cousin Anish left the girl back at her hostel as she confirmed that she intended to go with Kevin.
Thereafter, the armed gang, which arrived in three vehicles, reached Kottayam and vandalised Kevin's house and forcibly took away him and Anish, a native of Kalambukattuchira at Mannanam. The abductors thrashed Anish severely and left him on the way.
Kevin's body was found in a river in Kollam district on May 28. His relatives alleged that he was tortured and killed.
His family had alleged that laxity on the part of the local police in taking action on a man-missing complaint filed by Neenu had resulted in the gruesome death of the youth.
Sub-inspector M S Shibu and ASI Sunnymon of the Gandhinagar police station were suspended while Kottayam district superintendent of police V M Mohammed Rafique was transferred following the incident.
The post-mortem conducted at the Kottayam Medical College hospital had found that there were 16 cuts and bruises on Kevin's body.
The findings of the police inquiry and the post-mortem say that Kevin drowned in the Chaliyakkara river while he was trying to escape from the gang. But doubts remain whether Kevin died after falling in the river while running at night or if he was beaten by the goons and dumped in the river after death.
In all 238 documents, 55 pieces of evidence and 113 witnesses have been examined by the court so far. The mobile phone records of the accused, mobile phone photos, CCTV visuals from four different locations and the speed camera records provided by the Motor Vehicles Department proved crucial in the case.
