KASARGOD: The Ernakulam CBI court will pronounce the verdict in the murder case of Youth Congress activists Sarath Lal and Kripesh on December 28. Former MLA and CPM Kasaragod district secretariat member K V Kunhiraman, Kanhangad block panchayat president and former CPM Uduma area secretary K Manikandan, former Periya local secretary N Balakrishnan, and former Pakkam local secretary Raghavan Velutholi are among the 24 accused in the case.

There were 270 witnesses in the case. Peethambaran is the first accused in the case. K V Kunhiraman is the 20th accused. 14 of the accused were arrested by the Crime Branch and ten by the CBI. The double murder took place in Periya on February 17 in 2019. This case was initially investigated by a special team of the local police and later by the crime branch.The relatives of Sarath Lal and Kripesh later approached the high court demanding a CBI investigation.

With this, the high court quashed the crime branch charge sheet and announced a CBI investigation. However, the division bench upheld the crime branch charge sheet, upholding the high court single bench's verdict for a CBI investigation.