T P Chandrasekharan murder case: Kerala HC hands life sentence to all convicts

KOCHI: The Kerala High Court on Tuesday gave life sentence to all the persons convicted in the sensational T P Chandrasekharan murder case of 2012.

A Division Bench of Justices A K Jayasankaran Nambiar and Kauser Edappagath said that nine of the convicts would not be entitled to any remission until they serve 20 years in prison.

The High Court on February 19 upheld the conviction of all the accused who were held guilty by the trial court in the murder case.

It had confirmed the judgment of the trial court and upheld the conviction of Anoop, Manoj alias Kirmani Manoj, N K Sunil Kumar alias Kodi Suni, T K Rajeesh, K K Muhammed Shafi, S Sijith, K Shinoj, K C Ramachandran, Manojan and Kunhanandan with respect to the charges proved against them.

Kunhanandan had died during the pendency of the appeals.

The High Court had also set aside the acquittal of the two other accused and convicted them for criminal conspiracy in the case related to the murder of Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP) leader Chandrasekharan at Onchiyam on May 4, 2012.

The court was considering multiple appeals filed by the convicts seeking to set aside their conviction and sentencing. It also heard the state’s appeal to enhance the sentencing of the accused.

There was another appeal filed by K K Rema, widow of Chandrasekharan, seeking to convict an accused who had been acquitted.

The judgement containing details of the sentence is not available yet.

The trial court at Kozhikode had acquitted 24 accused, including CPI(M) District Secretary P Mohanan in the case.

The Kozhikode Additional Sessions Court in 2014 sentenced 11 accused to life imprisonment and awarded a three years’ jail term to another accused, Lambu Pradeep.

The convicted included CPI(M) local leaders K C Ramachandran and the late Kunhanandan.

Chandrasekharan (52) was hacked to death by a gang while he was returning home on his bike.

The then United Democratic Front (UDF) government in Kerala constituted a special investigation team to probe the case.