Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Monday upheld the lower court's order awarding death sentence to Ameerul Islam, the convict in the rape and murder of a law student at Perumbavoor. Rejecting the convict's appeal against the capital punishment, the HC granted permission to execute the order.
In the appeal moved before the High Court, Islam, a migrant worker claimed that the trial court had fabricated evidence against him. But the division bench of Justice PB Suresh Kumar and Justice S Manu confirmed the death penalty awarded to him after examining the scientific and circumstantial evidence including the DNA test report in the case.
Hang him soon, says victim's mother
The victim's mother welcomed the verdict and expressed happiness for serving justice to her daughter. Talking to Manorama News, she added that the judiciary should hang her daughter's killer soon.
The Case
The law student was found dead at her one-room house in Perumbavoor on April 28, 2016. According to the prosecution, Islam trespassed into the young woman's house on the fateful day. When the convict attempted to rape her, she resisted his move. Following this, he brutally murdered her. The victim sustained 38 injuries on various parts of her body including genitals.
In 2017, the Ernakulam Principal Sessions court awarded the death penalty to the migrant labourer from Assam. Islam was found guilty by the sessions court under various sections of the IPC, including 449 (house trespass to commit an offence punishable with death), 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement), 302 (murder), 376 (rape), and 376 (A) (causing death or causing the woman to be in a persistent vegetative state while committing rape).
The Special Investigation Team that probed the case used DNA technology and verification of call record details to prove his role in the crime. Islam, who had left Perumbavoor soon after committing the crime, was arrested from Kancheepuram in neighbouring Tamil Nadu, 50 days after he committed the gruesome crime. More than 100 police personnel questioned over 1,500 people in the case. Fingerprints of over 5,000 people were also examined by the SIT personnel, who went through over 20 lakh telephonic conversations before tracing Islam.
(With PTI inputs)