A Kerala court on Tuesday awarded capital punishment to 15 accused in connection with the murder of BJP leader Ranjith Srinivasan. They all were allegedly associated with the now banned Islamic outfit Popular Front of India (PFI).
Srinivasan, an OBC wing leader of the BJP, was brutally killed in front of his mother, wife and minor daughter in Alappuzha district on December 19, 2021.
The prosecution had sought capital punishment for the accused, terming the diabolical murder a “rarest of rare” crime.
Mavelikkara Additional District judge VG Sreedevi pronounced the judgment.
The court found that eight of the 15 men awarded death penalty were directly involved in the murder. Four of them had also reached his house armed with deadly weapons to prevent him from escaping.
Three other accused were convicted for hatching the conspiracy to murder the BJP leader.
An advocate by profession, Srinivasan was the OBC Morcha Kerala state secretary and a member of the BJP state committee. His “political” murder had sparked massive protests and outrage.