Jisha and Ameer ul-IslamJisha rape and murder case
• Sole accused Ameer ul-Islam gets death sentence
• Ameer ul-Islam was convicted of raping and murdering the 30-year-old Dalit law student in Kerala on April 28, 2016
• He has been slapped with a fine of Rs 10,000
• He has also been awarded life term, rigorous imprisonment of 10 and 7 years
• This is the verdict I expected. No mother should suffer like this: Jisha's mother after Ameer is awarded death sentence
• Counsel for the accused, B A Aloor, says will certainly appeal in the Kerala High Court
• Additional director general of police B Sandhya, who led the probe, says happy with the sentence
Wednesday's hearing
• Ameer had told the court that he was innocent. He said he had no connection with Jisha.
• Ameer's counsel said all charges were foisted. The defense said Ameer did not even fully understand the questions asked by the probe team as he knew Assamese only.
• Court rejected the defense plea for re-investigation by a central agency.
• Prosecution had termed the case 'the rarest of the rare' and sought capital punishment to the convict
• The prosecution said the case was similar to the 2012 Nirbhaya case that rocked the country.
• However, the defense counsel denied this and said, in the Nirbhaya case, the court heard an eyewitness unlike in Jisha case, and hence the two cases cannot be considered similar.
Tuesday's hearing
• Ameer ul-Islam was found guilty under various sections of the IPC including 449 (house-trespass in order to commit offence punishable with death), 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement), 302 (murder), 376 (rape) 376 (A) (causing death or causes the woman to be in persistent vegetative state while committing rape).
• The accused, however, was found 'not guilty' of offences charged under section 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offense) and sections under the SC/ST (prevention of atrocities) amendment Act 2015.
• The court had praised the probe team for using scientific methods to establish the role of Ameer.
• The investigation team had used methods such as DNA profiling and verification of call records to establish Ameer's involvement.
• The court also lauded the special public prosecutor and his team for conducting the case in a professional manner.
• As many as 100 witnesses were examined during the trial, which commenced in April 2016.
• The incident was in focus during the state assembly poll campaign last year with political parties attacking the then Congress-led UDF regime for 'tardy' progress in the probe and 'failure' to nab culprits.
• More than 100 police personnel had questioned over 1,500 people. Fingerprints of over 5,000 people were also examined by the SIT.
