THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A special CBI court has sentenced Muhammed Ali, an Andamanese man, to double life imprisonment and fined him Rs 10,000 for kidnapping and then murdering Shyamal Mandal, an engineering student from West Bengal, for ransom. If the fine is not paid, he faces an additional four years and three months' imprisonment. The sentence was handed down by Judge K Sanil Kumar.

Kidnapping for ransom carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment and a fine of Rs 5 lakh. As the convict can serve the sentence together, he needs to serve only one life sentence. Shyamal's father Basudev Mandal and mother Sumitra Mandal have to be paid Rs 4 lakh each for the loss.

The verdict came 17 years later. The first suspect, Durga Bahadur Bhatt Chhetri aka Deepak from Nepal, has not been identified yet. The convicts abducted Shyamal on October 13, 2005 in front of the Sreebala Theater in Attakkulangara. Basudev's father, who was the executive officer of the West Bengal Panchayat Samiti, informed the police after Shyamal's friends informed him.

Then, as he was about to come to Thiruvananthapuram, one of the convicts called and said that Shyamal is in their custody and demanded Rs 20 lakh for his release.

Meanwhile, on suspicion that the police were following them, the accused killed Shyamal, tied him in a sack and left him near Vellar on the Kovalam bypass. The body was found decomposed on October 23. When Basudev was working as a teacher in the Andamans, Muhammad Ali was the son of his friend Kunjukann. Durga Bahadur was an employee of his hotel.