Alappuzha: The Mavelikkara Additional District Session Court-I is scheduled to announce the quantum of punishment for the 15 convicts in the sensational Ranjeet Sreenivas murder case on January 30.
All of them were earlier found guilty by the court for brutally murdering the BJP leader and lawyer Ranjeet Sreenivas on December 19, 2021.
Considering the case on Thursday, Judge Sreedevi V G directly heard the convicts concerning their sentencing. All 15 are affiliated with the now-banned Popular Front of India (PFI) and its political wing, the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI).
During arguments on the quantum of punishment, the prosecution requested the court to award maximum sentences, while the defence contended that the case did not fall under the rarest of rare category that justifies capital punishment. The court also had the convicts undergo a mental stability test at the Government Medical College in Alappuzha.
The prosecution case is that Ranjeet, the State secretary of BJP’s OBC Morcha and a lawyer, was brutally hacked to death by the accused at his residence in Vellakinar, Alappuzha municipality, after barging into his house on the morning of December 19, 2021.
Ranjeet's killing was regarded as a retaliatory act in response to the murder of SDPI's State secretary K S Shan at Kuppezham Junction, Mannancherry, the night before.
Meanwhile, the trial in the Shan murder case is set to commence on February 2. Despite the police filing the charge sheet on March 16, 2022, the trial faced delays in appointing special prosecutors. While the first two appointees withdrew for various reasons, Adv P P Haris was appointed to the post only last week.
