T’puram: Seven people were sentenced to life imprisonment by Nedumangad SC/ST special court on Friday for the murder of 19-year-old Yuva Morcha leader Vishnu, who was hacked to death in front of his parents at Puthenpalam near Kannammoola. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on each convict.The convicts are Arun, Lallu, Rajesh alias Poocha Rajesh, Sanal Kumar alias Sanju, Sreenath alias Bolji, Vijeesh alias Vishnu and Manu alias Shetty Manu. Judge A Shajahan pronounced the verdict.The court acquitted five other accused — Dini Babu, Jayan, Ajesh, Unnikrishnan and Dileep. Suresh, the eighth accused, died during the trial.The seven were convicted under IPC Sections 302, 307, 324, 343 and 348. Section 302 deals with murder, Section 307 with attempt to murder, Section 324 with voluntarily causing hurt with dangerous weapons, Section 343 with wrongful confinement for three or more days, and Section 348 with wrongful confinement to extract a confession or information.According to the prosecution, the murder was the fallout of a gang rivalry and a retaliatory attack. Vishnu’s relative was an accused in the 2015 murder of Sunil Babu, brother of Dini Babu. The prosecution alleged that Vishnu was targeted in revenge.The incident occurred on Oct 7, 2016. Vishnu, then Kannammoola unit secretary of Yuva Morcha, was standing near his house on Puthenpalam Vidyadhiraja Road with his parents when the gang, armed with choppers and knives, attacked him. Vishnu tried to flee, but the assailants chased him and hacked him repeatedly.His mother, Bindu, and relative, Laila, tried to shield him and were also injured. Their statements were recorded by a judicial first-class magistrate while they were undergoing treatment and later formed important eyewitness evidence.Forensic evidence was crucial to the prosecution case. DNA tests established that bloodstains recovered from weapons and the clothes of the first seven accused matched Vishnu and the injured women.The postmortem found 34 injuries on Vishnu, consistent with attacks using knives and choppers. The prosecution examined 48 witnesses, produced 144 documents, and 34 material objects. Special public prosecutor V Sajan Prasad appeared for the prosecution.
