Kerala high court on Thursday awarded rigorous life imprisonment to 24 accused in the second Marad massacre case in which eight fishermen had been killed on May 2, 2003. It also imposed a fine of `25,000 on them.
A division bench of Justice M. Sasidharan Nambiar and Justice P. Bhavadasan set aside the trial court order acquitting these 24 men for want of evidence. The court delivered a judgement spread over 600 pages.
“Evidences are convincing and legally acceptable against the accused of being (part) of the unlawful assembly. The attack was deliberate and unprovoked, also a well planned annihilation, and the act was heinous.” it held.
The court also dismissed a plea filed by the state seeking a directive to award death sentence to 14 accused who were serving life term. It said the case “will not come under the rarest of the rare” category.
The court passed the order while considering appeals filed by the state and 62 convicts serving life term. The state sought to award life term to 76 accused who were let off by the trial court.
“The evidence shows the nature of the act committed by the members of a particular community as against the members of another religious group.
The utterances made by the aggressors show that the attempt of the assailants were to create communal frenzy,” the court held. Their attempt was to promote hatred and ill-will with an intention to disturb the public tranquillity.”
The 24 convicts are Haris, Shihab, Akbar, Navas, Shamsu, Ali Akbar alias Ali, Shameer, Noushad, Moideen Koya, Riyaz, Ameer, Shihab, Thajudheen, Subair alias Koyamon, Ashraf, Assainar, Aboobacker, Kanhikoya, Abbas, Ashraf, K. Majeed, Moideen Koya, Nazeer and Ashraf. The court asked them to appear before the special court on August 24. Special Public Prosecutor P. Vijayabhanu appeared for the state. n More on P6