Court awards life sentence to seven accused in Kannamoola Vishnu murder case 

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Nedumangad SC/ST Special Court has awarded life sentence to seven accused in the Kannamoola Vishnu murder case. Vishnu was a yuva morcha activist. The life sentence was awarded to Arun, Lallu, Rajesh, Sanal Kumar, Sreenath, Vijeesh and Manu. The trial in the case was completed the other day. The court had acquitted five in the case earlier.

Special prosecutor Sajan Prasad strongly opposed the defense lawyer's argument that the case was not one of the rare cases and that the accused should be given maximum leniency. The prosecution argued that it was an incident that shocked the society and that the accused should be given the death penalty. The argument was heard by Special Court Judge Shahjahan. The court had found seven guilty, including R Arun (Paratta) of Kollur in Kannamoola, the first accused in the case. Although the eighth accused was found guilty, he had died earlier.

The prosecution cross-examined a total of 48 witnesses in the case registered by the Pettah police. 144 pieces of evidence and six documents were produced. The charge sheet was filed by the investigating officer, Shanghumukham Assistant Commissioner Shanihan, under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Act. The accused ganged up and hacked Vishnu to death in front of his parents on October 7, 2016. Vishnu was 18 years old when he was killed.

The motive for the murder was the association between Anil Kumar’s family and the accused in the murder of Suni Babu, brother of Dini Babu, the eighth accused in the Vishnu murder case