The Mavelikara Additional District Sessions Court-I on Tuesday awarded the death penalty to all 15 convicts for brutally murdering BJP leader Ranjeet Sreenivas. Judge Sreedevi V G observed that the case falls under the category of the rarest of rare.
This is the highest number of death sentences awarded for a case in Kerala's legal history and the fourth in the country. Here are some of the cases where death sentences were awarded to multiple convicts by trial courts.
* 1997: Sixteen persons were sentenced to death by a Bihar court for their involvement in the Jehanabad carnage in 1997 when 58 unarmed Dalits were killed by the Ranbir Sena, a private militia of landlords.
* 1998: 26 convicts sentenced to death in Rajiv Gandhi assassination case by TADA court. The Supreme Court later reduced the sentence of 7 convicts to life sentence and released 19 others.
* Feb 2022: A Sessions Court in Ahmedabad sentenced to death 38 people for their involvement in a 2008 Ahmedabad serial blasts case. Their appeals and confirmation of the death sentence are pending before the Gujarat High Court.
* Dec 2016: A Special National Investigation Agency (NIA) Court sentenced to death Indian Mujahideen co-founder Yasin Bhatkal and four others in the 2013 Hyderabad blasts case. Their appeals and confirmation of the death sentence are pending before the Hyderabad High Court.
* Apr 2014: Mumbai court sentenced to death three convicts for raping a photojournalist inside an abandoned textile mill in 2013. The Bombay High Court commuted to life imprisonment the death penalty in November 2021.
* Sep 2013: Four men were sentenced to death in the 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder case. They were hanged to death in Tihar Jail in March 2021.
* Mar 2011: A special court sentenced to death 11 convicts in the Godhra Train burning case. The Gujarat High Court commuted their death sentences to rigorous life imprisonment in October 2017. Against the high court's order, the State filed an appeal to the Supreme Court, which is currently pending.
* Jul 2007: A special TADA court sentenced to death 12 convicts in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case. The Supreme Court commuted the death sentence of 10 convicts to life imprisonment while upholding the sentence against Yakub Memon in March 2013. He was hanged in Nagpur Central Jail on July 30, 2015.
* In 2022, Gujarat saw a sharp rise in trial courts giving capital punishment with 50 people being sentenced to death till August compared to 46 between 2006 and 2021, according to the data available with courts in the state.
(With PTI inputs.)
