Kerala HC upholds sentence of two PDP activists accused of murdering SFI activist

The Kerala High Court has upheld the prison term awarded to two People’s Democratic Party (PDP) activists who had been accused of barging into the house of Sakeer, a Students’ Federation of India (SFI) activist the very night that he was elected as the chairman of the Government Law College, Thiruvananthapuram in 1995, and murdering him. 

The Kadinamkulam Police had registered a case in this regard against 20 PDP activists. From among them, Rafi and Riaz – both from Madanvila, Thiruvananthapuram had been convicted by a trial court, on the charge of murdering Sakeer and for causing grievous injuries to his father, sought suspension of their sentence pending disposal of their appeal. 

They contended before the HC that the trial court found them guilty, based on feeble and insufficient evidence. Opposing their plea, the government argued that the case was decided based on direct ocular evidence and that of injured eye witnesses. 

A Bench of Justice A.K. Jayasankaran Nambiar and Justice Jobin Sebastian ruled on Friday that the trial court’s judgment and the evidence on record prima facie indicated that there is sufficient evidence to support the charges that were levelled against the accused persons.