ALAPPUZHA: The court awarded capital punishment to all the 15 accused in the murder case of advocate Ranjith Sreenivas, BJP OBC Morcha state Secretary. Mavelikara Additional Sessions Court Judge V G Sreedevi pronounced the sentence. The court had earlier found all the 15 accused guilty. The court said that this is the rarest of rare cases and the accused do not deserve any mercy. Ranjitht's relatives, including his mother, wife and daughter, had reached the court to hear the verdict.

The police were on high alert in Alappuzha considering the importance of the case. Security was beefed up in the court premises. Out of the 15 accused found guilty in the case, 14 were heard directly and the case was postponed for pronouncing the verdict. Meantime, the 10th accused in the case, Mullakkal Vattakkatussery Nawaz, is undergoing treatment at the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Hospital following a stroke. Prior to the pronouncement of the verdict, the accused were subjected to health tests at Alappuzha Medical College.

The prosecution case is that Ranjith Sreenivas was hacked to death in front of his mother, wife and daughter on December 19, 2021. The accused barged into his house at Vellakinar in Alappuzha and then committed the crime.

Popular front activists Nizam of Alappuzha Komalapuram Ambanakulangara Machanad Colony, Mannancherry Ambalakadavu Vadakkechirappuram Ajmal, Alappuzha West Munduwatakkal Anoop, Aryad Tekk Avalukunn Irakat Muhammad Aslam, Mannancheri Njaravel Abdul Kalam (Salam), Atdiwaram Darussabeen House Abdul Kalam, Alappuzha West Thaivelikakam Sarafudeen, Mannajeri Udumbithara Manshad, Jaseeb Raja in Alappuzha West Kadavatusheri Chira, Tayil Sameer in Komalapuram, Mannancheri North Aryad Kannarkad Naseer, Mannancheri Chavadi Zakir Hussain, Theke Veli Shaji (Poovathil Shaji) and Mullakkal Nuruddin Purayat Shernas Ashraf are the accused in the case. Advocate Prathap G.Padikkal is the special public prosecutor.